• Kristiina Hyrkäs, Kaija Appelqvist-Schmidlechner, and Kirsti Kivimäki.
• Faculty of Nursing, University of Northern British Columbia, British Columbia, Canada. hyrkask@unbc.ca
• J Nurs Manag. 2005 May 1;13(3):209-20.

AbstractThere have recently been several organizational changes that have challenged nursing managers in the Finnish health care system. First-line managers need support in their work because of organizational changes and scarce economic resources. One of these supportive measures is clinical supervision. A group of first-line managers in a Finnish University hospital participated in a 2-year clinical supervision intervention in 1999-2000. The managers' perceptions of the clinical supervision were followed up twice during the intervention and 1 year after (2001). The aim of this study is to describe how the first-line managers saw the future effects of the clinical supervision intervention 1 year after its termination. At the beginning of the intervention, the number of participating nursing managers was 32. The number of respondents in this study 1 year (2001) after the clinical supervision was 11. Data was collected using empathy-based stories, which involved writing short essays. The respondents received orientation and a script to assist them in the writing of essays. The stories were analysed qualitatively by categorizing the responses by themes. The managers deemed that clinical supervision had, in the 3-year time frame, positive long-term effects on their leadership and communication skills, the desire for self-development, self-knowledge and coping. Managers believed that in the long run, clinical supervision would provide them with a broader perspective on work and would enhance the use of clinical supervision as a supportive measure among co-workers. First-line managers expect clinical supervision to have long-term positive effects on their work and coping. Empathy-based stories, as a method, were found suited to studies, which aim to obtaining future-oriented knowledge.

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