Tips for new supervisor

[FreudianSlippers]

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I recently got appointed to be a delegate supervisor for interns at my my UCC, which I am incredibly excited about. For reference, I have had my license for a few months, and this is my first time being on the other end of the supervisory relationship. I have two questions for ya'll:

1) Do supervisors document their supervision sessions? If so, would I just keep personal notes or would I have to document officially some how?
2) Any general tips or things I should know going in?

 

[WisNeuro]

1) Yes, always. You should keep summary notes about what was discussed, when, and how long. Print it off and have the intern sign off on it. If you ever have to put someone on a remediation plan, you will be so glad you have this documentation. CYA always.

2) Find your own style, and individualize the supervision based on needs. Hard to give specific feedback here.

 

[bcliff]

I recently got appointed to be a delegate supervisor for interns at my my UCC, which I am incredibly excited about. For reference, I have had my license for a few months, and this is my first time being on the other end of the supervisory relationship. I have two questions for ya'll:

1) Do supervisors document their supervision sessions? If so, would I just keep personal notes or would I have to document officially some how?
2) Any general tips or things I should know going in?

https://www.apa.org/about/policy/guidelines-supervision.pdf

 

[EmotRegulation]

You may be required to document by your UCC but usually documenting supervision is more personal; there are no medical records for supervision. Documenting IS a good idea though.

I do recommend looking into contracting for supervision (look this up, it has you think through your expectations of the supervisee and your own role and agree on the front end). I also recommend reading some things about supervision and some best supervision practices, as there's plenty of research out there. There are supervision books as well. 🙂

 

[calimich]

my favorite text on the subject

Fundamentals of Clinical Supervision

www.pearson.com

 

[EmotRegulation]

my favorite text on the subject

Fundamentals of Clinical Supervision

www.pearson.com

I also like that one! I use this one as a text when I teach my supervision course, because it's got a lot of examples. Amazon product ASIN 1433803429
I also recommend reading stuff by Watkins (he publishes multiple supervision papers per year, is ridiculously prolific) and also work by Ellis who has done a lot to understand and articulate both inadequate and harmful supervision.

 

[erg923]

Document supervision (for the benefit of both you and the supervisee). Its required by many state boards.

1. Ask them how they are/are doing.... and make sure they understand you mean this literally and genuinely.... beyond the common social pleasantry. Take an interest in them and their lives and career goals (within reason of course).

2. Make sure your student/intern/post-doc is preparing for the supervision session as much as you are.

3. Offer alternative perspectives that are clinically reasonable, even if the supervisee is right on the money, just to see what they think and to challenge them. But make sure they know you are doing this for that reason before you start doing it.

4. Always ask about any ethical questions/issues and harm potential for every case.

5. I always assigned (or suggested) an article or book chapter for reading at the end of every session. Being well-read in psychiatry and clinical psychology is essential, even if it not totally applicable to what you are doing in the moment. I need to read more myself these days.

Personally, I always made sure I knew exactly what they were saying to patients in-terms of informed consent for treatment and their supervisory status. I used to tell them that this is not a "jazz instrumental" or "Grateful Dead show." It should really not have much variation at all, and they should know it by heart.

As an aside, when I supervised psychological testing assessments, I tried to reinforce that "this is not creative writing class" and that reports should be concise and usable (aside from the results table appendix) to the professionals and the patient reading it. Radiologists do not babble on endlessly about their test results and justifying their interpretations, and you shouldn't either. Summaries can provide caveats and nuance. Depending on how the reports will need to be used, we can even put the summary on the first page.
Also, please don't "over-test" your patient (if you are looking for something, you will inevitably find it the more tests you give) or be to be too "wishy-washy" with the diagnostics. You can say "I don't know" at the end, but that probably shouldn't happen all that often if you spend 6-8 hours with the patient and have done all of what you are supposed to be doing. Psychologists are paid to give opinions, not to give a bunch of "maybes" and rule-out diagnoses. The DSM is there for a reason, so please use it and do the best you can and don't overthink it. That said, if you don't know, you don't know. It happens. Not everything needs to be concluded or decided on the front end. Revelations and disclosures during the course of therapy/treatment can take care alot of what you don't know or question now. Psychiatric diagnosis evolve over time. The notion that you have to know exactly what it is/what's going on before treating the person is utterly ridiculous.

 

[FreudianSlippers]

my favorite text on the subject

Fundamentals of Clinical Supervision

www.pearson.com

I also like that one! I use this one as a text when I teach my supervision course, because it's got a lot of examples. Amazon product ASIN 1433803429
I also recommend reading stuff by Watkins (he publishes multiple supervision papers per year, is ridiculously prolific) and also work by Ellis who has done a lot to understand and articulate both inadequate and harmful supervision.

Thanks for the tips! These look like amazing resources for further reading. I actually just completed the required 6 hr supervision CE and it referenced Bernard quite a bit. I'll also check out Watkins and Ellis before the semester begins.

 

[FreudianSlippers]

Document supervision (for the benefit of both you and the supervisee). Its required by many state boards.

1. Ask them how they are/are doing.... and make sure they understand you mean this literally and genuinely.... beyond the common social pleasantry. Take an interest in them and their lives and career goals (within reason of course).

2. Make sure your student/intern/post-doc is preparing for the supervision session as much as you are.

3. Offer alternative perspectives that are clinically reasonable, even if the supervisee is right on the money, just to see what they think and to challenge them. But make sure they know you are doing this for that reason before you start doing it.

4. Always ask about any ethical questions/issues and harm potential for every case.

5. I always assigned (or suggested) an article or book chapter for reading at the end of every session. Being well-read in psychiatry and clinical psychology is essential, even if it not totally applicable to what you are doing in the moment. I need to read more myself these days.

Personally, I always made sure I knew exactly what they were saying to patients in-terms of informed consent for treatment and their supervisory status. I used to tell them that this is not a "jazz instrumental" or "Grateful Dead show." It should really not have much variation at all, and they should know it by heart.

Thanks so much for the insights Erg923...i'll take these to heart as I go forward. Also, they resonate very closely with many of the points made in the 6 hr supervision CE I just finished.

 

[psychRA]

I didn't realize that documenting supervision was so common. My state already has a ton of unnecessary licensure hoops to jump through, so I'm surprised that this isn't also required.

I do a lot of supervision and training on top of my regular duties, and I can't imagine where I would find the time to document supervision on top of everything else I'm already doing. I take training seriously and devote a lot of time and attention to supervision, too - definitely more than the required minimum. If I had to document every supervision session, I honestly think that I would need to scale back the number of supervisees that I take on. I work too much unpaid overtime as it is.

 

[WisNeuro]

I didn't realize that documenting supervision was so common. My state already has a ton of unnecessary licensure hoops to jump through, so I'm surprised that this isn't also required.

I do a lot of supervision and training on top of my regular duties, and I can't imagine where I would find the time to document supervision on top of everything else I'm already doing. I take training seriously and devote a lot of time and attention to supervision, too - definitely more than the required minimum. If I had to document every supervision session, I honestly think that I would need to scale back the number of supervisees that I take on. I work too much unpaid overtime as it is.

While I have not had to personally put a trainee on remediation, I have been at a site where another supervisor has. This documentation was fairly critical. I tend towards more conservative CYA tendencies, so this is definitely a part of my protocol. Alternatively, you can have your trainee write up a brief summary of the supervision session, make copies, and both of you sign off on it. Takes a little more work, but in the rare case of problems, it will save you a ton of time and headache.

 

[thebalmofhurtminds]

While I have not had to personally put a trainee on remediation, I have been at a site where another supervisor has. This documentation was fairly critical. I tend towards more conservative CYA tendencies, so this is definitely a part of my protocol. Alternatively, you can have your trainee write up a brief summary of the supervision session, make copies, and both of you sign off on it. Takes a little more work, but in the rare case of problems, it will save you a ton of time and headache.

Do you do this weekly?

 

[WisNeuro]

Do you do this weekly?

When I am the primary supervisor, yes.

 

[EmotRegulation]

I didn't realize that documenting supervision was so common. My state already has a ton of unnecessary licensure hoops to jump through, so I'm surprised that this isn't also required.

I do a lot of supervision and training on top of my regular duties, and I can't imagine where I would find the time to document supervision on top of everything else I'm already doing. I take training seriously and devote a lot of time and attention to supervision, too - definitely more than the required minimum. If I had to document every supervision session, I honestly think that I would need to scale back the number of supervisees that I take on. I work too much unpaid overtime as it is.

I also do a lot of supervision and I don't document each session either. I do take notes during the supervision meeting itself (to remind myself what we talked about and if I gave the supervisee any tasks), and I have to write an evaluation at the end of each semester (3 months). I always start new supervisory experience trying to build in a few minutes to write down my thoughts but that tends to die off by about a month in due to other obligations.

That said, IF I had a trainee who felt in any way like a trainee with a problem of professional competence, I would take the time to document supervision more closely. I've done that in the past. Of course, in my setting documentation is less of an issue because our clinic has constant video, so everything IS documented and I can always go save video if I think it will be needed for longer than the 2 months or so the system keeps the video.