Speed supervision

Over the last few years the London Deanery has offered workshops in supervision skills for clinical teachers. In response to the concern that supervision conversations are time consuming, we devised an exercise to promote the ability to carry out a small piece of supervision that can nudge forwards an issue in a short time (10 minutes or less): speed supervision.

The workshops are part of the faculty development programme for clinical and educational supervisors in primary and secondary care at the London Deanery. The workshops teach a question-based approach to help the supervisee reflect and shift their perspective.

Offering advice is often not the most time-efficient way to help someone towards the solution for an issue. We chose to introduce an approach that could help a supervisee think differently about an issue in a brief period of time. Helping a supervisee to make a small piece of progress in their thinking can in turn lead to future changes. Supervisors are encouraged to explore values and context as well as technical and scientific aspects.

Even during a brief period of supervision, asking questions rather than reaching for the familiar solution may be surprisingly satisfying for both supervisee and supervisor alike. The skills can be applied to professional and personal dilemmas and situations.