References
Supporting nursing, midwifery and allied health professional teams through restorative clinical supervision
Abstract
The mental health and wellbeing of healthcare staff have been significantly affected by the demands resulting from the recent COVID-19 pandemic. Restorative supervision is a type of clinical supervision that supports reflective practice that can help build practitioners' resilience by focusing on the individual's experience, aiming to sustain their wellbeing and their motivation at work. This model has been shown to reduce stress and burnout and increase compassion satisfaction. This article discusses the implementation of a restorative clinical supervision programme used to support staff wellbeing in nursing, midwifery and allied health professional teams in a large London-based NHS trust.
Restorative clinical supervision is a type of reflective clinical supervision that allows professionals a constructive space to think about and process their experiences, enabling them to deliver more effective care. This type of supervision is ideal for professionals experiencing emotionally demanding workloads, and it works by enabling individuals to process the difficult emotions that they may be continually exposed to, through a supportive confidential relationship so that the worker feels restored (Proctor, 1986; Wallbank and Woods, 2012). The COVID-19 pandemic has placed an extraordinary amount of emotional pressure on the healthcare workforce in the UK. Increased levels of stress, anxiety, depression and insomnia have been reported in health professionals working on the frontline during COVID-19 (British Medical Association, 2020; Coto et al, 2020; Kelly, 2020; Baldwin and George, 2021). Addressing the mental health needs of health professionals and providing them with adequate support is even more important now than it has ever been before.
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