Supervision as-usual--is it enough?

OBJECTIVE

Supervision in most training centers in India happens routinely in all training situations and often for a group of trainees rather than in a one to one protected manner. How satisfied are trainees with the current methods of supervision? How holistic is the supervision? Are there major gaps with this method compared to formal individual time protected supervision? These were some of the questions that were addressed in this study.

METHOD: Satisfaction about supervision among 47 post-graduate psychiatry residents in the academic year 2009-2010 was studied. A checklist was constructed to assess satisfaction in areas of educational supervision, clinical supervision and personal/research supervision. Two sets of questions were used - one with a likert scale and the other with a true/false rating.

RESULTS

Psychiatry residents were satisfied with most areas of supervision. Clinical supervision was superior to educational (including research) and personal supervision. Educational supervision was reported to be satisfactory, however, supervision during external postings, examination clinics and related to development of specific areas of interest, was inadequate. Low levels of satisfaction were reported with supervision regarding psychosocial management. In personal supervision, the areas of need identified were: (1) Involvement of residents in leisure activities, (2) Social and administrative skills and (3) Help in liaison with other disciplines.

CONCLUSIONS

Psychiatry residents in India were satisfied with most areas of supervision even though it is informal and as-usual (i.e. done on a need based way) in most settings. Some specific areas may require more formal and time protected supervision.