Editor’s Note: This text-based course is a transcript of the webinar, Supervision: Feedback, Criticism and Expectations, presented by Kerri Phillips, SLP.D, CCC-SLP.
Learning Objectives
- After this course, participants will be able to describe how to provide positive and negative feedback effectively.
- After this course, participants will be able to describe how to provide criticism that is beneficial to the supervision process.
- After this course, participants will be able to describe how to provide clear expectations of clinical/job responsibilities.
Introduction and Overview
Supervision is often compared to parenting. When reading the literature, you may think to yourself that it sounds like instruction on how to be a good parent. Similarly, we enter supervision having little preparation, just as we enter into being first-time parents with little preparation. In supervision, as in parenting, many times, the clear expectations we want to communicate are not communicated well, or they are not received well by the listener. Miscommunications may occur, leading to complications and frustration.
During this session, we will reflect on the professional continuum of being a supervisor. There are different skillsets that are needed in a variety of instances, depending on what type of individual you are supervising. For the purposes of this presentation, we are primarily referring to speech language pathologists, but many of these skills could also apply if you are a rehab director supervising occupational therapists (OTs), physical therapists (PTs), etc. I am couching all of this in terms of speech language pathology, but they are also beneficial supervision skills that could be extrapolated to other professions if you have a more administrative role.
Remember that when we welcome graduate students in the first semester, with no experience in most cases, they have very different needs and expectations as opposed to the graduate student who is in their final extern placement. We, as supervisors, expect different things. Then, if you move up to assistants, they may sometimes be functioning at a higher level than a graduate student, because they may have been employed in the field and have some background knowledge. Conversely, an assistant might be like a beginning graduate student, because it might be their first job as an assistant.
Then, as we work toward the end of that clinical fellow year (CFY), they are entering the profession with minimal skills and competencies. The goal of all training programs is to provide them the minimal knowledge and skills in order for them to independently begin their practice. We need to make sure that our expectations at the beginning of the CFY is in line with what they are truly able to do. Then, hopefully, we see that role change as they merge toward the end of that process.
Definition of Supervision
What is a supervisor? What do they do? How do we define supervision? When we engage in supervision, our job is to help develop a confident professional, throughout the continuum of their career: from graduate student to clinical fellow (CF) and beyond. We also have to remember that we are going to be tested at every level. How we handle situations determines how successful we will be in building a relationship that leads to a productive supervisory experience.
One definition of supervision, as set forth by Bernard and Goodyear, is:
An intervention provided by a more senior member of a profession to a more junior member or members of that same profession. This relationship is evaluative, extends over time, and has the simultaneous purposes of enhancing the professional functioning of the more junior person(s), monitoring the quality of professional services offered to the client(s) she, he, or they see(s), and serving as a gatekeeper of those who are to enter the particular profession.
Another definition from Powell and Brodsky states:
