The restorative power of resilience-based clinical supervision

Janine S, student nurse and resilience-based clinical supervison participant

Over the past few weeks, I have been feeling quite down and lost. I am a student nurse supposed to be on placement out in practice, learning and developing my skills. It is week 3 of my 5 week placement period and I have only attended 2 days. This is because on the second day of my placement I received an email saying there is an outstanding form I need to complete and I cannot attend placement until this is done.  I had not received a work-based risk assessment form, and therefore not completed it which means I cannot attend placement. Maybe the form was sent to my junk mail and been deleted in error or maybe an administration error resulted in me not receiving it. Anyway while I’m waiting for the form to be resent I must stay at home.  

My point is, I got up this morning still feeling annoyed, frustrated and helpless. I was missing out on vital learning time and had no control over it. There was nothing I could do but sit and wait for the form to arrive. Well, that’s what I thought until I participated in the resilience based clinical supervision session today. I shared my situation with the rest of the group during the ‘checking in’ part of the session, and let them know how I was feeling and why. I was overwhelmed with the amount of support I received. Other members of the group, peers and facilitators provided me with suggestions of how I could continue my learning from home by accessing webinars and accessing tools on various websites that could aid my development. They suggested ways I could meet some of my competencies from home and how to use this time and plan ahead for when I am able to commence back on placement.  

To say how grateful I am for today’s session would be a huge understatement. I was too wrapped up in the situation myself to see a way out until I took part in today’s RBCS session and received the outstanding support and advice that I did. I had started to lose motivation, and even questioned whether I should continue with my training. I began the session feeling really negative, but by the end I felt positive, optimistic and absolutely motivated to progress, and in control.  

I realise we are in the middle of a pandemic and these things happen. I don’t know why the form has been lost, but I do know I will eventually receive it and get back out on placement. I have plenty of things to keep me busy, to keep learning and developing my skills until then, and that is all thanks to the resilience based clinical supervision group. An excellent asset to the nursing profession and in my eyes an essential part of a student nurse’s journey. I genuinely believe that resilience based clinical supervision sessions can play a vital role in reducing the number of student nurses that do not complete their training, I definitely may have quit if I hadn’t attended the RBCS group.  

In my opinion training to be a nurse can be a difficult and emotional journey. Clinical supervision can massively help with this, it can make the journey more manageable and certainly more pleasant. During the last session I did a full 360 degree turn from beginning in the threat system, not seeing a way to achieve my dream career, to finishing in the drive system feeling like I was well on my way to becoming a qualified nurse. This is only my personal experience but I am one of over twenty thousand student nurses that can benefit from resilience based clinical supervision.  

Find out more about resilience-based clinical supervision here.