Using clinical supervision to improve the quality and safety of patient care: a response to Berwick and Francis

摘要

BackgroundAfter widely publicised investigations into excess patient deaths at Mid Staffordshire hospital the UK government commissioned reports from Robert Francis QC and Professor Don Berwick. Among their recommendations to improve the quality and safety of patient care were lifelong learning, professional support and ‘just culture’. Clinical supervision is in an excellent position to support these activities but opportunities are in danger of being squeezed out by regulatory and managerial demands. Doctors who have completed their training are responsible for complex professional judgements for which narrative supervision is particularly helpful. With reference to the literature and my own practice I propose that all practicing clinicians should have regular clinical supervision.