What Really Matters for Supervision Training Workshops? A Realist Evaluation

Area of Science:

• Health Professions Education
• Organizational Psychology
• Program Evaluation

Background:

• Supervision training is crucial for healthcare supervisors' essential functions.
• Realist evaluations are valuable for complex educational interventions.
• No prior realist evaluations specifically assessed supervision workshops.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the effectiveness of supervision workshops for health care supervisors.
• To identify the contexts, mechanisms, and outcomes of supervision training.
• To build and refine program theory for supervision workshops.

Main Methods:

• A two-stage realist evaluation was conducted between 2018-2019.
• Intervention: half-day, face-to-face supervision workshops in an Australian state-wide program.
• Data Collection: Realist interviews with 10 workshop developers and 43 supervisors; team-based analysis using realist logic.

Main Results:

• Workshops yielded benefits like improved supervisor satisfaction via mixed pedagogies and optimal duration.
• Negative outcomes included suboptimal knowledge gains due to irrelevant content or facilitator issues.
• Contexts like supervisor experience, sector, and workplace culture influenced outcomes.

Conclusions:

• Findings partially support existing theories on supervision training and faculty development.
• Recommendations include using mixed pedagogies, relevant content, and competent facilitators.
• Tailoring workshops to supervisor context (experience, sector, culture) is essential for optimal impact.