Clinical supervision with community Macmillan nurses: some theoretical suppositions and case work reports

This paper explores clinical supervision undertaken with community Macmillan Clinical Nurse Specialists in the UK. The philosophical motor is embedded in a Heideggerian existential-phenomenological framework, influenced by psychoanalytical thinking as described by Yalom. The discussion is derived from a qualitative research study designed to reach the lived-experience of five Macmillan Clinical Nurse Specialists. The author explores, in context, issues related to authenticity and project. Ideas are linked to contemporary concerns with reflective practice. The recommendation of this paper is that clinical supervision, through whatever method, reaches the vital experience of nursing practice. Realising tacit knowledge has potential to inform professional practice through powerful synergies of theoretical ways, understanding and lived experience. In addition, nurses might attain the existential idea of a boundary experience and so identify constructive ways to address issues arising out of professional practice.