An interpretative phenomenological analysis study of the lived experiences of health care assistants / support workers receiving clinical supervision within acute mental health inpatient settings in the UK

Jackson, William and Simpson, Jane (2024) An interpretative phenomenological analysis study of the lived experiences of health care assistants / support workers receiving clinical supervision within acute mental health inpatient settings in the UK. PhD thesis, Lancaster University.

Abstract

Clinical supervision is a process which has been adopted as part of nursing practice for the past 30 years. Its purpose provides a formal arrangement for professional support, guidance and development through reflective practice. The literature around clinical supervision in nursing is extensive and continues to grow. However, despite this, very little is known about health care assistants’ / support workers’ experience of clinical supervision and particularly their experience of this within inpatient mental health settings. This is especially pertinent as health care assistants / support workers represent the largest number of practitioners within these settings and have more face to face contact time with the service user. The literature review in this thesis alludes to this point by highlighting the scarcity of available research on clinical supervision with this group of people in this setting. This thesis has utilised Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis as a methodology to explore the experiences of the health care assistant / support worker of clinical supervision within inpatient mental health ward settings. Eight participants were involved in individual semi-structured interviews. These recorded experiences formed the data which were analysed and provided two over-arching themes. These were: (1) ‘’One of the things that could help is the…, is that it happens basically I suppose and that it doesn’t keep getting called off…’’: Trying to engage with the ongoing challenges. (2) ‘‘Because of supervision, the way it’s structured and the way it works, it’s kept me within the NHS’’: Placing value on clinical supervision. These overarching themes consisted of three subthemes each. This study offers an original contribution to knowledge through the discussion, which explores how health care assistants/ support workers can meaningfully contribute to clinical supervision and become empowered in the process. The limitations of this study are also discussed and suggestions for future research.