Goal‐setting, Feedback, and Assessment Practices Reported by Australian Clinical Supervisors

Factors affecting expert performance in bid evaluation: An integrated approach

Experts play a crucial role in underpinning decision-making in most management situations. While recent studies have disclosed the impacts of individuals’ inherent cognition and the external environment on expert performance, these two-dimensional mechanisms remain poorly understood. In this study, we identified 14 factors that influence expert performance in a bid evaluation and applied cross-impact matrix multiplication to examine the interdependence of the factors. The results indicate that the two dimension-related factors affect each other within a person–environment system, and a poor situation perception gives rise to the deviation of expert performance. Expert performance can be improved if external supervision and expertise are strengthened through deliberate practices. The study proposes a new expert performance research tool, elucidates its mechanism in bid evaluation from a cognitive psychology perspective, and provides guidelines for its improvement in workplace contexts.

Stakeholders' viewpoints on work-integrated learning practices in radiography training in South Africa: Towards improvement of practice

PURPOSE

The aim of this investigation was to suggest practices to improve the delivery of work-integrated learning (WIL) in radiography training in South Africa (SA).

METHODS

An extensive survey was conducted among all universities in SA involved in the training of radiography students, to investigate the current delivery of WIL. Data were collected by means of quantitative questionnaires with open-ended qualitative components. The questionnaire was distributed to lecturers (n = 32), clinical supervisors (n = 44) and final-year students in Radiography (n = 146).

RESULTS

The quantitative (closed questions) and qualitative (open-ended comments) findings from the stakeholders with regard to the improvement of practice in the delivery of WIL in radiography training are presented in this article. The main themes discussed relate to curriculum design for WIL, teaching/learning of WIL, assessment of WIL and management and coordination of WIL.

CONCLUSION

WIL is a powerful pedagogy if implemented and managed correctly. The results from this study may enable lecturers in radiography programmes in SA to improve the delivery of WIL in the training of high quality, employable graduates.

The effects of clinical supervision on supervisees and patients in cognitive behavioral therapy: a systematic review

Clinical supervision is a central part of psychotherapist training but the empirical support for specific supervision theories or features is unclear. The aims of this study were to systematically review the empirical research literature regarding the effects of clinical supervision on therapists' competences and clinical outcomes within Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT). A comprehensive database search resulted in 4103 identified publications. Of these, 133 were scrutinized and in the end 5 studies were included in the review for data synthesis. The five studies were heterogeneous in scope and quality and only one provided firm empirical support for the positive effects of clinical supervision on therapists' competence. The remaining four studies suffered from methodological weaknesses, but provided some preliminary support that clinical supervision may be beneficiary for novice therapists. No study could show benefits from supervision for patients. The research literature suggests that clinical supervision may have some potential effects on novice therapists' competence compared to no supervision but the effects on clinical outcomes are still unclear. While bug-in-the-eye live supervision may be more effective than standard delayed supervision, the effects of specific supervision models or features are also unclear. There is a continued need for high-quality empirical studies on the effects of clinical supervision in psychotherapy.

Topics and techniques in clinical supervision in psychotherapy training

Clinical supervision is regarded as one of the most important components of psychotherapy training. In clinical practice, it has been found that the implementation of clinical supervision varies substantially and often differs from the recommendations made in the literature. The objective of the current study was to investigate the frequency of topics (e.g. ethical issues) and techniques (e.g. role play) in the clinical supervision of psychotherapy trainees in Germany. To this end, we considered supervisions in cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) and psychodynamic therapy (PT). A total of 791 psychotherapy trainees (533 CBT and 242 PT) were asked via the internet to provide information about their current supervision sessions. We found that clinical supervision in psychotherapy training addressed topics that are central for the effective treatment of supervised patients (i.e. therapeutic interventions, therapeutic alliance, maintaining factors, and therapeutic goals). However, the most frequently used intervention in clinical supervision in psychotherapy training was case discussion. Rarely were techniques used that allowed the supervisor to give the supervisee feedback based on the supervisee's demonstrated competencies. For example, 46% of the supervisors never used audiotapes or videotapes in the supervision. Differences between CBT and PT were rather small. Current practice regarding the techniques used in clinical supervision for psychotherapy trainees contradicts recommendations for active and feedback-oriented clinical supervision. Thus the potential of clinical supervision might not be fully used in clinical practice.

Brief Online Training with Standardised Vignettes Reduces Inflated Supervisor Ratings of Trainee Practitioner Competencies

Objective

Supervisor assessments of trainee competence are integral to ensuring that clinical psychology trainees reach competency benchmarks. The commonly used Clinical Psychology Practicum Competencies Rating Scale (CΨPRS) has been shown to elicit inflated ratings of competency. Hence, the aim of this study is to examine whether brief supervisor training reduces ratings by providing objective criteria with which supervisors can assess trainee competency.

Method

The ratings included were of 124 psychology trainees from nine Australian university clinical programmes. Of 170 supervisors, 32 completed the online training immediately prior to commencing the CΨPRS. Training required supervisors to rate the competency level described in five standardised vignettes (Beginner through to Competent). Vignette ratings, as determined by a panel of expert supervisors, were provided as feedback. A sixth calibration vignette was also rated (no feedback provided). Firstly, CΨPRS ratings from the trained and untrained supervisors were compared. Secondly, the difference between supervisor and expert ratings of the calibration vignettes were compared across trained and untrained groups.

Results

Trained supervisors provided lower CΨPRS ratings than untrained supervisors. In addition, trained supervisors (vs untrained supervisors) provided ratings of the calibration vignette that more accurately matched the ratings provided by the expert panel.

Conclusions

Brief online training using standardised vignettes was associated with lower CΨPRS ratings. The standardised vignettes helped calibrate supervisors’ ratings and likely attuned supervisors to the skills and competency levels that are expected at particular developmental stages. As a consequence, training appeared to reduce ratings, arguably resulting in more accurate assessments of trainee performance.