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Effective clinical supervisionReflective practiceEffective supervisors engage in reflective practice throughout their careers. This is the ability to critically reflecton one’s own practice. It includes identifying strengths and weaknesses, determining actions required to improveskills, and developing clinical reasoning skills to ensure the delivery of safe patient care.Reflective practice is an effective process to develop self-awareness and facilitate changesin professional behaviour.“Reflection is a metacognitive process that occurs before, during and after situations with the purpose of developinggreater understanding of both the self and the situation so that future encounters with the situation are informedfrom previous encounters.” 1Repeated exposure to the complexities of clinical work leads experienced clinicians to develop “mental models”of clinical experiences that can be drawn upon to facilitate quick decisions in response to varied and complexclinical situations. 2 Reflective practice allows the clinician a clearer conceptualisation of these processes and canguide self-directed learning when gaps in knowledge or skills are identified.Effective supervisors also encourage their supervisees to engage in regular reflective practice.A model of reflective practice which can be used in supervision is described in more detail on pages 91-93of this document.To encourage supervisors to practise what they (should) preach we have included prompts throughout this guidefor the supervisor to reflect on their own practice and to help identify areas for continuous improvement.An example is below.Reflective practiceWhat strengths do I bring to the role of supervisor?What skills do I need to develop to be more effective?What steps am I going to undertake to make sure that I develop these necessary skills?1 Sandars, J. (2009). The use of reflection in medical education: AMEE guide no. 44, Medical Teacher, 31, 685-695.2 Ibid, pp 687-688.28 HETI The Superguide FIRST EDITION