Supporting conscious competency: Validation of the Generic Supervision Assessment Tool (GSAT)

Area of Science:

• Psychology
• Professional Development
• Healthcare Management

Background:

• Clinical supervision is crucial for effective service delivery and demonstrating professional competence.
• Existing supervisor competency tools are often not evidence-based, universally applicable, or freely accessible.
• There is a need for validated, reliable, and accessible measures of supervisor competence.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and validate the Generic Supervision Assessment Tool (GSAT) for assessing supervisor competencies across various professions.
• To test the reliability and construct validity of the GSAT using exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis.
• To provide a non-discipline specific, freely available tool for benchmarking supervisor competencies.

Main Methods:

• Development of the Generic Supervision Assessment Tool (GSAT) by an expert multidisciplinary group.
• A cross-sectional survey design with two phases, involving 12 professional groups across Australasia.
• Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) on data from 479 supervisors and 447 supervisees (2018), followed by confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) on data from 182 supervisors and 186 supervisees (2019).

Main Results:

• The final GSAT-SR comprises 26 competency items across four factors.
• The final GSAT-SE includes 21 competency items across two factors.
• Both EFA and CFA confirmed the psychometric validity and reliability of the GSAT-SR and GSAT-SE for assessing supervisor competencies.

Conclusions:

• The GSAT is a validated, freely available, and non-discipline specific tool for assessing clinical supervisor competencies.
• It can be used for benchmarking supervisor performance across diverse professions, optimizing evaluation processes.
• The GSAT enhances the translation of evidence-based supervision skills into practice, ultimately strengthening supervision effectiveness.