Clinical supervision: a plea for 'pit head time' in cancer nursing

The concept of clinical supervision has received considerable attention in the nursing literature of late, enjoying favour not only with many practitioners and managers, but academics and policy makers alike. The following paper considers the utility of clinical supervision within the cancer nursing setting, concentrating particularly on the development of self-awareness and the facilitation of responsive, reflective, therapeutic relationships. The paper is predicated on the belief that clinical supervision not only provides a valuable means of peer review and support, for nurses both in the pre- and post-registration spheres, but that structured process of systematic supervision sustains the necessary environment for the protection and enhancement of quality nursing interventions (Butterworth, 1992). The potential of clinical supervision, as regards the wider development of nursing as a practice discipline, is illustrated by the incorporation of an extensive literature review which explores the theoretical and practical imperatives pertaining to the notion of clinical supervision, not only in relation to the individual, but to cancer nursing and nursing per se.