Authors: Kate Thwaites, Randolfo Obregon
Year: 2019
Event: 2019 TheMHS Conference
Subject: Strengthening the Workforce and Community with a Framework for Clinical Supervision for Mental Health Nurses.
Type of resource: Conference Presentations and Papers
Abstract:
Biography:
Kate Thwaites is a mental health nurse working as Principal Clinical Advisor in the Victorian f the Chief Mental Health Nurse. This work encompasses her role in nursing leadership and working with lived experience experts. Kate’s professional vision is a health care system which provides evidence based care, nurtures, values and develops clinical staff and provides kind and compassionate mental health care to consumers and families.
Randolfo Obregon is Senior Project Officer at the Office of the Chief Mental Health Nurse in the Victorian Department of Health and Human Services.
Randolfo has ten years’ experience in public service, with a focus on workforce development policy and translation of policy into practice.
Strengthening the workforce and community with a Framework for Clinical Supervision for Mental Health Nurses
In response to our workforce need, the Victorian Chief Mental Health Nurse developed a framework for clinical supervision for Victorian mental health nurses.
The Office of the Chief Mental Health Nurse provides leadership to, and advocacy for, consumers, the mental health sector and mental health nurses. The Office drives best practice to deliver positive and recovery-focused outcomes for consumers who access Victorian mental health services.
The Office provides practice leadership and evidence-informed directions and recommendations for mental health nursing practice, policy and service design that has an impact on the workforce, to promote continuous improvement in client outcomes.
The Chief Mental Health Nurse recognises the support and need for nurses to have a regular safe space to reflect on practice, as part of their professional development and career structure.
Though there were examples of good practice and training models over the years, there remained a lack of uniformity or standards in Victoria to support the mental health nursing workforce.
Despite industrial support through EBA’s there remains difficulty with state-wide support and widespread uptake of the practice within mental health services.
The following areas will be discussed in relation to the evolution of the Framework:
• Identification of 5 Principles critical to the provision of effective clinical supervision
• Articulation of modes and models
• Consultation models for state-wide engagement
• Learning and development training programs engagement
• National engagement
• Development of best practice standards for supervision and training programs
• Lived experience supervision pilot
• Evaluation – first steps
Importantly, an implementation and sustainability plan to support ongoing leadership within services has also been developed.
Learning Objectives
Learning Objective 1: The audience will be provided with an outline of the workforce strengthening project for Victoria, the Clinical Supevision Framework and the resilience building that can be suggested from support in the workplace for mental health nurses
Learning Objective 2: This topic is relevant to mental health services to support development of similar frameworks and also to engage in a implementation and sustainability program of work over 5 years.
References
Clinical Supervision for mental health nurses - a framework for Victoria (2018), Department of Health and Human Services, Metro Printing, https://www2.health.vic.gov.au/mental-health/chief-mental-health-nurse/clinical-supervision-framework
Lynch, L, Hancox, K, (2008), Clinical Supervision for Nurses.Wiley-Blackwell, London
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