Clinical supervision in the palliative care team setting: a concrete approach to team wellness

Clinical supervision is a structured, case-based approach to learning that is used most often in the mental health field. An established palliative care consultation service at a large, academic medical center implemented a modified clinical supervision model in an effort to improve team members' awareness of their own emotions and the way those emotions impact behavior during, primarily, clinical encounters. This report discusses clinical supervision in detail and, by way of a case, illustrates the power of this intervention as a source of self-care and a concrete approach to managing palliative care team well-being.