Clinical supervision as an interaction between the clinical educator and the student

Abstract

The interaction between clinical educators and students is regarded as the strongest element in developing expertise and in forming students' professional identity in clinical education. Although clinical education has been studied in physiotherapy, the natural interaction between clinical educators and students has remained unanalyzed. The aim of this study was to examine how supervised learning sessions during patient treatment were constructed. The focus was on the forms of interaction between clinical educators and students in natural contexts. By videotaping 12 natural patient treatment sessions, which simultaneously comprised part of the clinical education of physiotherapy students, and by using qualitative discourse analysis, three supervision discourses emerged from the data: “directing the interaction,” “making limited room for the student,” and “encouraging the student's participation.” This study revealed that clinical educators have a dominant role in constructing supervised learning sessions during patient treatment. Depending on how the interaction is constructed, it is possible to support or prevent student participation in decision making as well as to promote or reject the rehearsal of critical thinking or self-directed learning among students. This study highlighted the importance of interactional skills in supervision practices. More research into constructing learning sessions in clinical education is needed.