Does clinical supervision promote medical-surgical nurses' well-being at work? A quasi-experimental 4-year follow-up study.

koivu a., saarinen pi. & hyrkas k. (2012) Journal of Nursing Management 20, 401413 Does clinical supervision promote medicalsurgical nurses well-being at work? A quasi-experimental 4-year follow-up study Aim The aim of the present paper is to report results of a quasi-experimental study exploring the effects of clinical supervision (CS) on the development of medicalsurgical nurses well-being at work over a 4-year period. Background Effective workplace interventions are needed to prevent stress and burnout. More robust scientific evidence is needed to confirm the restorative effects of CS in nursing. Methods A questionnaire survey on the perceptions of work and health was conducted in 2003 and 2007 on 14 units of a Finnish university hospital where 19 CS group processes had been completed between 2004 and 2007. Results Improvement in job resources as well as reduction in professional inefficacy and psychological distress were found among nurses who received effective CS (n = 41), but were not present among the nurses who found their CS less effective (n = 43) or who did not attend CS (n = 82). Conclusions The results provide robust evidence for the positive effects of CS on medicalsurgical nurses well-being at work. Implications for nursing management Stress is a developmental challenge in the professional growth of individual nurses. One option for management to sustain nurses well-being at work is to develop a learning organization in the workplace making use of CS.