Supervision needs of nurses working in the community

Area of Science:

• Nursing
• Social Work
• Psychology

Background:

• Community nurses increasingly adopt counseling roles in specialized programs (e.g., drug/alcohol withdrawal, palliative care).
• The heightened emotional intensity in client interactions necessitates updated skills and support frameworks for nurses.
• Existing professional development models may not adequately address the unique challenges faced by community nurses in these roles.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and evaluate a supervision program for community nurses, adapted from a social work model.
• To assess the program's impact on nurses' self-regulated learning, self-awareness, skills competence, and counseling knowledge.
• To provide a supportive framework for nurses managing emotionally demanding client relationships.

Main Methods:

• A program of supervision sessions, based on a social work model, was implemented.
• Community nurses participating in the program provided evaluations of their experience.
• The evaluation focused on self-regulated learning, self-awareness, skills competence, and counseling knowledge.

Main Results:

• Participants positively evaluated their experience with the supervision program.
• The program appeared to support nurses' development in self-regulated learning and self-awareness.
• Nurses reported perceived improvements in skills competence and an increase in counseling knowledge.

Conclusions:

• The developed supervision program is positively received by community nurses.
• The program shows potential for enhancing the capabilities of nurses in counseling roles.
• Further research is warranted to validate these findings with larger sample sizes and broader generalizability.