Information for Supervisors

Supervisors and supervision are a crucial component of the education, training and support of our prevocational doctors.

You may be a:

  • Term Supervisor: a senior medical practitioner allocated to a term, responsible for the coordination of the prevocational doctor’s clinical experience in that term. (This definition builds on that given in the AMC Glossary1.) 
  • Clinical Supervisor (Primary): the supervisor with consultant level responsibility for managing patients in the relevant discipline that the prevocational doctor is placed. The consultant in this role might change and could also be the term supervisor (AMC Glossary). 
  • Clinical Supervisor (Day-to-Day): a supervisor (either in addition to the primary clinical supervisor or the same person) who has direct responsibility for patient care, provides informal feedback and contributes information to assessments. This occurs in many settings, and the person in this role should remain relatively constant during the term. They should be at least PGY3 level, such as a registrar (AMC Glossary). 
     
    1 Term supervisor is defined by the AMC as “The person responsible for orientation and assessment during a particular term. They may also provide primary clinical supervision of the prevocational doctor for some or all of the term”.  
      

The following standards (from the National Framework for Prevocational Training) outline the requirements for supervisors and supervision which must be met in order to demonstrate the term is suitable for interns and residents:

3.2.2 Prevocational supervisors understand their roles and responsibilities in assisting prevocational doctors to meet learning objectives and in conducting assessment processes. 

3.2.3 Supervision is provided by qualified medical staff with appropriate competencies, skills, knowledge and a demonstrated commitment to prevocational training. 

3.2.5 The prevocational training program has processes for ensuring those assessing prevocational doctors (including registrars and assessment review panel members) have relevant capabilities and understand the required processes. 

3.3.2 The prevocational training program ensures that supervisors have training in supervision, assessment and feedback, and cultural safety, including participating in regular professional development activities to support quality improvement in the prevocational training program.

Whether you are a term supervisor, clinical supervisor, or a registrar providing day-to-day supervision, you will find the following information valuable:

 

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