Neuropsychology supervision: A survey of practices in Quebec and a cross-cultural comparison

Abstract

Objective

Supervisors in neuropsychology have an ethical responsibility to continuously improve their ability to supervise. Despite a growing interest in the field, there exist little data on the actual practice and few guidelines to help the practitioner through the process of neuropsychology supervision. This study aims to characterize neuropsychology supervisors and their practices in Quebec, Canada and compare these with supervisory practices of supervisors in the United States, with the ultimate aim of offering recommendations to supervisors.

Method

Seventy-nine neuropsychology supervisors responded to the 20-question online survey of supervisory experience, education, practices, and familiarity with and use of supervision models that was inspired by Shultz and colleagues.

Results

Experience in clinical supervision ranged from 0.12 to 35 years and from having supervised 1–150 supervisees. About half of respondents reported having received continuing education in supervision and about two thirds were familiar with at least one type of supervision model. Some supervisory practices were associated with experience, but not with familiarity and utilization of supervision models. Supervisors from Quebec and the U.S. reported a similar frequency of addressing most of the various supervisory competencies with their supervisees.

Conclusions

Based on the competency-based approach we offer a portrait of neuropsychology supervision in Quebec while highlighting some cultural differences with the U.S. Recommendations include focusing more on certain foundational (e.g. reflective practice) and functional competencies (supervision most notably). Neuropsychology supervisors are also encouraged to devote more time to continuing education opportunities in supervision in order to ensure supervisee development and quality care.

Keywords:

• Clinical supervision
• competency
• neuropsychology supervision
• neuropsychology training
• supervisor competence

Acknowledgments

The authors wish to thank the Ordre des psychologues du Québec (OPQ), the Association Québécoise des neuropsychologues (AQNP), as well as our participants for their contributions to our survey. A special thank you to two neuropsychology supervisors for their helpful comments on an early draft of our manuscript: Stephan Kennepohl and Isabelle Rouleau.

Disclosure statement

The authors have no potential conflicts of interest to report.

Notes

1 The regulatory body in Quebec that ensures and oversees the licensure of psychologists and authorizes them to practice neuropsychology.

2 Quebec data: Table 6 and Table 7 in the Results section of this article; U.S. data: Table 8 and Table 9 in Shultz et al., (2014), page 10.

Additional information

Funding

This research received no external funding.