A New Focus on Supervision: Looking to the Future
Abstract This article examines some of our assumptions about clinical supervision, such as, good clinicians automatically make good supervisors, the major role of the supervisor is evaluation, and formal education is not necessary for engaging in supervision. It is important to examine what actions or future directions are necessary so that we do more than just say we recognize supervision as a distinct area of practice. It is time to identify actions professionals and/or the professions need to take in order to ensure quality supervision and, as a result, more effective clinical education. Suggestions include, among others, focusing on increased knowledge and understanding of the supervisory process in speech-language pathology and audiology, acknowledging that education in supervision makes a difference and creates opportunities for professionals to obtain such education, developing and distributing new professional policy documents that focus on supervision, recognizing and promoting a comprehensive definition of the supervisory process, developing tools to evaluate the effectiveness of supervisors, and promoting research that supports the efficacy of supervision in the professions. Supervision is necessary; it is guided by competencies that require training; it is both an art and a science; and, it is a specialty area of the professions.