‘Your head can literally be spinning’: A qualitative study of general practice supervisors’ professional identity

Supervisors have an integral and demanding role in general practice vocational training. Becoming a supervisor involves expanding a ‘clinician’ professional identity to include ‘supervisor’. Little is known about what contributes to the development of supervisor identity; knowing this could inform effective training and support. This study explored the experiences and perceptions of supervisors to understand what contributes to their professional identity formation.

Transcripts of 15 semi-structured interviews with general practice supervisors were analysed using Wenger’s ‘community of practice’ theoretical framework as an analytic lens.

Developing a supervisor identity involved four interdependent features: learning the skills of being a supervisor; belonging in the role of supervisor; finding meaning in supervision; and balancing the role of supervisor and clinician.

Relationships are fundamental to the development of the general practice supervisor identity. Important relationships are those the supervisor has with their registrar, their practice community, the training program and other supervisors. These relationships support and reinforce their supervisor role. It is important to adequately recognise, protect and cultivate a program that values these relationships.