Supervision

Supervision is a daily aspect of occupational therapy practice. It promotes personal growth within the practitioner, encourages effective job performance, and most importantly, it ensures that clients recieve safe and effective occupational therapy services.

Supervision can be categorized into two main groups: formal supervision and informal supervision.

Formal Supervision

• Primarily concerned with directing and controlling functions of management of the organization.
• Given the authority to watch over the work of others to make certain that the work being performed is efficent in meeting the organizations goals and objectives.
• Formal supervisions act as a link between staff and higher levels of management.
• Adminstrative functions
• Prepare and delegate workload
• Arrange schedules
• Translate organizations policies and procedures
• Check performance with work standards 
• Educational functions 

• Familiarize new staff to organzation
• Provide discipline
• Provide feedback about performance
• Carry out training programs
• Supportive function
• Conduct group meets to express concerns
• Hold individual meetings with employees to discuss progress towards goals
• Provide formal and informal support  

Informal Supervision

• Also known as peer supervision.
• Supervision that is provided by a colleague who shares knowledge and provides feedback with  no formal authority.  
• This type of supervision occurs spontaneously as a result of professionals working together to support growth and development that will assure best client outcomes.

There are three types of supervision that oversee specific features of work that include administrative supervision, professional practice supervision, and functional supervision.

Administrative Supervision 

• Ensures that supervisee if performing to the standards of the organization.
• Focus on aspects of the job such as
• Attendance
• Schedules
• Use of benefits
• Successful completion of job tasks
• Typically occurs in public school setting.

 Professional Practice Supervision

• Supervisor provides support, training, and evaluation of performance skills.
• Facilitates the development of the supervisee's interviewing skills, clinical reasoning, and appropriate selection of assessments and interventions.
• Typically provided by fieldwork educators during Level II fieldwork experiences.

Functional Supervision

• Training and overseeing in a particular aspect or function of clinical practice.
• Supervisor is only responsible for overseeing work performance in the selected aspect of work (Crepeau, Cohn, & Schell, 2009).