The Importance of Effective Supervision in Nursing Practice

Running head: SUPERVISION 1
Supervision
Student’s Name
Institution Affiliation

SUPERVISION 2
Theoretical Analysis/ Application
I would have handled the current situation differently in certain ways. Firstly, I would
have delegated the task and then ensured effective completion through appropriate supervision
strategy. In the current situation, SN Mary delegated the task to Tom and instructed him on what
to do. However, Mary failed to assess and follow up on the progress of the delegated task. Thus,
only two of the four components of effective supervision process was employed. Supervision
entails provision of guidance, direction, evaluation, and follow up by the superintendent for
accomplishment of a delegated task (Porter-O’Grady & Malloch (2016). Effective supervision
includes initial as well as ongoing direction, procedural guidance, surveillance and assessment,
and follow-up. It involves the active practice of giving instructions, guiding, and influencing the
performance of a person (Porter-O’Grady & Malloch (2016). The aim of supervision is to offer a
basis for monitoring, evaluating, assessing feedback, and receive feedback while accomplishing
a task, which can lead to skill development (Dehghani, Nasiriani, & Salimi, 2016). As such, sole
instructions to avoid serving any food to the patient and to place a nil by mouth signage near the
patient’s bed was not adequate. Rather, these instructions would have been accompanied by
evaluation and periodic inspection of how Tom was handling the activity while offering ongoing
guidance to ensure the nil by mouth outcome was met.
The failure to prevent the patient from feeding can also be associated to failure by the
staff nurse to put into consideration that she had delegated a task to a student nurse and thus
respond appropriately by offering regulatory supervision. Nurses have a professional
accountability of providing regulatory supervision of activities conducted by nursing students
(British Columbia College of Nursing Professionals, n.d.). Regulatory supervision is comprised
of four processes, namely, (a) knowing the competencies of the student nurse, (b) authorizing the

SUPERVISION 3
task based on student’s competence, client condition, complexity of activity, and practice setting,
(c) set the conditions of performing the task, and (d) manage risk to client. (British Columbia
College of Nursing Professionals, n.d.). Thus, Mary should have assessed the competency of
Tom first before authorizing him to conduct the task.
While the staff nurse did a tremendous act of delegating some tasks, she did not ensure
efficiency in completion of the tasks. While delegating a task, nurses should have highly
developed skills of leadership such as capabilities of those being delegated to, and directly and
clearly communicating on what to be done coupled with the importance of effective task
completion (Marquis & Huston, 2009). Effective delegation is a self-taught skill that takes
repetition and time to master (Farthing, 2014). Further, there are five rights of delegation which
entails delegating the right task to the right person at the right circumstance while offering the
right direction and communication and supervision (Barrow, 2019). In the current case, the staff
nurse should have explicitly explained the importance of ensuring that Mr Tan is not served with
food or drinks. Mary should have further emphasized on the necessity of placing the NBM close
to the bed.
With regard to the style of supervision, Mary should have not utilized laissez-faire. This
style involves giving maximum freedom to followers thus encouraging independent supervision
(Mauk, 2010). The Staff nurse only offered a limited directed and expected the student to self-
drive themselves and complete the task. In this situation this style failed as Tom overlooked an
important concept. As (Dorgham & Al-Mahmoud 2013) outlines, a good supervisor applies
different styles of supervision depending on the context. The staff nurse should have outlined
strictly what to be done while emphasizing on the consequences of failing to effectively
complete the task thus taking the bureaucratic supervision approach. At the same time, she