Supervision

This book contains a series of case studies which depict the management issues a family planning organization faces in designing and implementing a new community-based distribution (CBD) program for contraceptives. The cases, which take place in a fictional country Momonboro, are based on an actual program initiated in an African country, and reflect the problems and successes which that program experienced. The book is divided into seven sections: an overview of CBD, planning, effective management, supervision, compensation and pricing, financial control, and a start-up kit that serves as a guide through the major tasks of planning and implementing a CBD project.

This presentation was part of the International Conference on Global Health session, “Integration and Application: Successes and Challenges in Health-Worker Training.” It talks about the need for supervision, the supervisory problems at the Health Center, the approaches taken to address the problem, improving supervisor skills, and monitoring.

This manual is a collection of adaptable tools and guidelines designed to help clinic supervisors and clinic managers achieve objective improvements in the quality of health care. The manual is especially useful for managers supervising integrated health services, who, on any given day, may be called on to support the provision of a full range of primary health services. The manual is designed to complement more detailed standard operating procedures that may be in use for specific services, for example, antiretroviral therapy. It is based on the belief that regular, systematic supervision is essential to upgrading clinic services and maintaining improvements.

This leaflet has been designed as an introduction to clinical supervision. It aims to stimulate ideas and to encourage occupational health nurses to set up supervision practice in their workplaces. Clinical supervision isn’t a management tool, but can be used as a support and prompt to professional practice in a creative way. [from introduction]

The Population Council and The Pubcomm Group, Inc. have developed simple, inexpensive, user-friendly computerized job aids to assist supervisors in improving the quality of family planning, maternity care, and postabortion care services. The software is free to download. [publisher’s description]

The competency-based approach used in JHPIEGO-supported training improves performance by ensuring that trainees go back to their worksites with the knowledge and skills required to provide FP services. Once back at the workplace, however, participants often face constraints that limit their ability to provide quality services. Factors that can affect the performance of the healthcare provider include: job expectations, performance feedback, supplies and equipment, motivation, possessing the knowledge and skills to provide services, and supervision. For these participants—and their colleagues in clinical settings—to perform well, it is essential that they have regular and supportive personal contact from supervisors… JHPIEGO proposes to address training-related supervision problems through the development of a supervision learning package. Before embarking on the development of the supervision learning package, JHPIEGO carried out a performance analysis that focused on reproductive health (RH) supervisors. [publisher’s description]

The handbook includes descriptions of the facilitative approach to supervision and the roles and characteristics of facilitative supervisors in involving staff in the QI process, leading staff through change, creating a nonthreatening environment, and helping staff use data for decision making. [publisher’s description]

AVSC defines facilitative supervision as an approach to supervision that emphasizes mentoring, joint problem solving, and two-way communication between the supervisor and those being supervised. This definition recognizes that supervisors play an essential role as intermediaries who can facilitate the implementation of institutional goals and who can facilitate local-level problem solving and quality improvement. The aim is to focus attention on a key concept of supervision, joint problem solving, and to remind us that traditional inspection alone is not conducive to helping sites achieve continuous quality improvement.

As part of the East, Central and Southern African College of Nursing’s 7th Scientific Conference, this presentation introduces the facilitative approach to supervision, which aims to improve providers’ performance and the quality of health care services.

The Family Planning Manager’s Handbook is a standard text in management training courses around the world and has received wide recognition as a practical guide for managers of health and family planning programs. [publisher’s description]

This presentation was part of the International Conference on Global Health session, “Integration and Application: Successes and Challenges in Health-Worker Training.” It presents the results of a study done in Senegal to evaluate the formative supervision program and its impact on the quality of reproductive health care.

This resource guide assists program managers in planning and implementing supervision systems in healthcare settings. Emphasis is placed on clear job expectations, leadership, and communication.

This toolkit includes a collection of HRM resources and links assembled for the Global Health 2005 conference. Most of the resources are in Microsoft Word format and provide guidance on how to develop a variety of HRM documents or processes. Topics covered include supervision, hiring and recruitment, HR policies, and HIV Workplace Programs and training. [publisher’s description]

Human Resource Development (HRD)is a very important yet very difficult component for effective health care delivery, especially in the public sector. Bureaucratic barriers, discontinuity, ineffective leadership, and lack of systematic approaches are major reasons for failures. A package of HRD strategies were introduced into Yasothon Hospital. This paper describes the detail of the implementation and evaluation of the results. [from abstract]

Ensuring the availability of essential drugs and using them appropriately are crucial if limited resources for health care are to be used optimally. While training of health workers throughout Zimbabwe in drug management (including stock management and rational drug use) resulted in significant improvements in a variety of drug use indicators, these achievements could not be sustained, and a new strategy was introduced based on the supervision of primary health care providers.

In Senegal, traditional supervision often focuses more on collection of service statistics than on evaluation of service quality. This approach yields limited information on quality of care and does little to improve providers’ competence. In response to this challenge, Management Sciences for Health (MSH) has implemented a program of formative supervision. This multifaceted, problem-solving approach collects data on quality of care, improves technical competence, and engages the community in improving reproductive health care. [abstract]

This issue explores ways to improve supervision in family planning clinics. It focuses on developing an interactive team supervision strategy that can improve the supervision of activities and individual performance. It explains how clinic staff can work together as a team to provide ongoing supervision and improve the quality of family planning services.

These job satisfaction surveys are tools intended to gain feedback from providers who have stayed in their positions, providers who have changed jobs and managers in district and facility level health centers in order to measure satisfaction with working conditions.

This presentation is from a Capacity Project sponsored interactive workshop to consider fresh perspectives on supportive supervision, exploring alternative approaches to the standard visiting-supervisor model from within and outside the international health care sector. The presentation discusses a leadership approach to supervision.

To view this presentation, you must have either Microsoft PowerPoint or download the free PowerPoint Viewer.

This paper distills lessons from recent efforts to improve the supervision of family planning and health programs in developing countries and identifies approaches that may be more effective and sustainable. It describes supportive supervision, an approach to supervision that emphasizes joint problem-solving, mentoring, and two-way communication between supervisors and those being supervised. It also expands the concept of effective supervision by exploring how self-assessment and peer assessment, as well as community input, can be seen as vital components of results-oriented, supportive supervision.

The objectives of this presentation are to provide participants with an understanding of the role of leaders and managers in promoting quality services and to have participants identify action steps/interventions to promote quality at different levels of the health system. [from author’s description]

There is no doubt that one of the most effective ways of improving quality of health care at district level, is by means of clinic supervision. To that end, the Clinic Supervisor’s Manual is being used to implement supervision throughout health districts in South Africa. This booklet is a simple tool which guides the effective use of the Clinic Supervisor’s Manual in addition to guiding the day to day activities involved in supervision towards successful and improved outcomes. It is envisaged that clinic supervisors, programme managers, sub-district and district managers will benefit from reading and using The Nine Step Guide to Clinic Supervision.

In this setting, physicians were already making site visits to clinics to monitor technical standards of care. An intervention was designed to reinforce doctors’ interpersonal communication (IPC) training. Under the intervention, doctors received IPC job aids, self-assessment forms, and tape recorders. They taped themselves during consultations and assessed their skills from the recordings, using the forms and in consultation with their supervisors. The self-assessment form and the supervisor assessment form were modified to be reproduced in this report. [publisher’s description]

This presentation is from a Capacity Project sponsored interactive workshop to consider fresh perspectives on supportive supervision, exploring alternative approaches to the standard visiting-supervisor model from within and outside the international health care sector. The presentation discusses the context of health care, frameworks for supervision in health care, examples of framework application and evidence of effectiveness.

To view this presentation, you must have either Microsoft PowerPoint or download the free PowerPoint Viewer.

This report describes a study measuring the quality of supervisor-provider interactions and includes the instruments developed for recording information from supervisory interactions. The study observed and taped supervisory visits, logged all supervisory activities, interviewed supervisors and providers, and collected supervision checklists that may have been in use at the healthcare site. Results detail what the supervisors’ strengths and weaknesses were; recommendations for the Ministry of Health that would improve supervision are included. [publisher’s description]

Measuring, managing and improving organisational performance are key considerations for individuals and teams charged with the responsibility for leading and managing NHS organisations. These are issues that are addressed by this resource, which has been developed specifically to support managers and leaders of NHS organisations to identify and act upon signs of performance decline and failure. This resource is primarily focused on performance decline and failure at the level of individual trusts, across the range of primary care, acute, mental health and ambulance sectors. As such, the primary audience for the document is executive and non-executive directors of boards, who can use the resource as a diagnostic tool and take remedial action.

This presentation is from a Capacity Project sponsored interactive workshop to consider fresh perspectives on supportive supervision, exploring alternative approaches to the standard visiting-supervisor model from within and outside the international health care sector. The presentation discusses supervision training and the results of this type of training in Kenya.

To view this presentation, you must have either Microsoft PowerPoint or download the free PowerPoint Viewer.

This Self-Assessment Inventory outlines the major areas of competence an effective supervisor must have. The competency areas are sub-divided into categories which correspond to the major functions supervisors perform. Its primary use is as a self-assessment tool. Individuals are encouraged to use it to assess their competence and performance as supervisors and use the results to develop a plan for improvement. This Inventory can also be used as a guide to curriculum development for Supervisory Training, using the components as the basis for a needs assessment exercise. [purpose]

This Kwik-Skwiz addresses the important area of clinic supervision. This document is aimed at district management teams; clinic supervisors and program managers may find it especially useful. Key areas of effective supervision are presented with the aim of assisting district management teams to critically assess clinic supervision in your district. [author’s description]

Supportive supervision uses a practical system of objective measures to foster improvements in the procedures, personal interactions, and management of primary health care facilities. While many approaches have been proposed to improve the quality of health services (for example, quality assurance, continuous quality improvement, client-centered services, district team problem-solving, fully functional service delivery points), the supportive supervision approach improves services by focusing on meeting staff needs for management support, logistics, and training and continuing education. Using short checklists enables supervisors to provide guidance on the technical aspects of services, which, combined with a client-centered outlook, results in high-quality primary health care.