Nursing Research Today is a free monthly online journal that collates and summarizes the latest research about Nursing, including details on health care, hospital staff, professional care.

Communication--a core concept in client supervision by public health nurses.

Tveiten S, Severinsson E

Akershus University College, Faculty of Nursing Education, Lillestrøm, Norway. sisdel.tveiten@hiak.no

AIM: The aim of this study was to explore public health nurses' reflections on client supervision. BACKGROUND: Reflection on actions represents a possible basis for constructing and refining assumptions on current theories used in practice thus making knowledge development possible. METHODS: Transcript-based qualitative content analysis was used to analyse the findings from individual interviews with 13 female public health nurses. FINDINGS: Communication is a core concept of client supervision by public health nurses and includes the following themes: (1) building a trusting relationship, (2) looking beyond the current situation, (3) creating a partnership and equality and (4) considering the challenge involved in trying to act in the clients' best interests. CONCLUSIONS: This study shows that public health nurses' reflection and reflecting related to their provision of client supervision revealed one possible assumption regarding their theories-in-use; communication is a core concept in client supervision. Communication is viewed from a hermeneutic perspective--as the meaning of the interaction between the public health nurses and the client in the supervision is reflected upon and interpreted.

Published 7 April 2006 in J Nurs Manag, 14(3): 235-43.
Full-text of this article is available online (may require subscription).

© 2005-2008 Nursing Research Today. All Rights Reserved.