Clinical supervision in nursing in the 1990s--current state of concepts, theory and research

The aim of this article is to explore the current state and challenges of clinical supervision with regard to its research.

Clinical supervision in nursing has been debated extensively, but also accepted officially as part of nursing practice. However, it has been claimed that the subject is conceptually vague, theoretically ambiguous and lacking in empirical research evidence.

A computer-based search was carried out in an international journal database of nursing. Of the published articles on effectiveness, 11 were chosen for a closer examination.

It can be argued that the present studies have failed to show actual effects of clinical supervision reliably and convincingly enough.

Research into supervisory effectiveness is still in its infancy. To increase the scientific rigour of future research, it would be necessary to expand and clarify the scope of these studies as well as to diversify the range of research methods on the basis of ontological and epistemological analyses.