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The supervisor’s toolkit – activitiesGetting to know your supervisee’s skill levelWhen entering a new supervisory relationship, you need to establish the skill level and prior clinical experience of thesupervisee before supervision can proceed. For example, an oral health practitioner may move from a teaching clinicwhere they are confident in working with adult clients to private practice where they will be working with children.While they may be skilled in appropriate treatment approaches, they may require further development of specificskills under supervision for working with children before completing these tasks independently.Patient safety comes firstWhere is your superviseeon the learning curve?Have you checked their skills?Patient safety is a core responsibilityof all clinical staff that cannot be delegatedThe clinical care and safety of the patient is the responsibility of all health care professionals. It is importantto be clear about the clinical skills of the supervisee, whether they are a student, new graduate or moving intoa new clinical area, so that they are not exposed to situations for which they are unprepared.To ensure patient safety it is critical that the supervisor:• discusses the intervention plan for the patient with the supervisee to facilitate clinical reasoning and decisionmaking to ensure safe patient care;• routinely oversees patient care as required to ensure that oral health professionals are acting competently;• is vigilant to detect triggers for a need for further involvement (to prevent or correct errors by the superviseeor to escalate care);• is accessible when assistance is sought or ensures there is someone else to go to when the supervisor is absent.It is far better for supervisors to be actively engaged in supervision that prevents errors and maintains standardsthan to attempt to manage problems after the event.80 HETI The Superguide FIRST EDITION