Develop a clinical supervision plan

Develop a clinical supervision plan

A clinical supervision plan describes how the practice will ensure a registrar receives support to manage patients they are not yet competent to manage alone. It’s an important document for the registrar and all members of the supervisory team.

A new clinical supervision plan should be developed for every registrar term. Each registrar has a different degree of competency and their competency changes over time; the practice’s circumstances may also change from term to term. The clinical supervision plan is developed, reviewed and revised by the supervisory team in consultation with the registrar.

A clinical supervision plan is created by answering three questions:

• When should the registrar call for help?
• Who should they call?
• How should they make contact?

When answering the questions above, the clinical supervision plan should also detail:

• a plan for escalating issues to when the first call supervisor is not available
• detail on cover available if the designated supervisor goes on leave.

At all times, arrangements for offsite supervision need to be clear and known to the registrar, practice staff and other doctors in the practice.

If the training site provides visiting medical officer (VMO) support, and the registrar is included in this roster, the clinical supervision plan must include provision for supervision of the registrar as VMO. When a registrar is engaged in VMO activity arranged by the practice, the training site remains responsible for ensuring the appropriate level of supervision is provided to them.

The supervision plan is a document to be kept by the practice. There is no requirement to enter it into the training management system (TMS). However, it should be readily available to view, on request by a medical educator, external clinical teaching visitor or accreditation team member.