Competence in competency-based supervision practice: Construct and application.

TLDR

Clinical supervision demands that practitioners assess supervisee competencies and deliver effective supervision, yet competence—defined as the requisite knowledge, skills, and values—has become a focal point as psychology increasingly adopts competency-based approaches akin to other health professions. The authors aim to review competence as a construct and define competency-based clinical supervision, emphasizing ethical, legal, contextual, and practice considerations. They accomplish this by reviewing perspectives and establishing a competency-based supervision framework that addresses the ethical, legal, contextual, and practice issues involved. Their review highlights challenges in clinical supervision and offers recommendations for best practices.

Abstract

Providing competent clinical supervision is challenging for the practitioner both in determining supervisee competencies and in conducting the corresponding supervision. Competence, an ethical principle that informs the practice of psychology, refers to requisite knowledge, skills, and values for effective performance. Similar to other health care professions, psychology is increasingly moving towards competency-based approaches in education, training, and performance appraisal. In this article, the authors review perspectives on competence as a construct and define competency-based clinical supervision, with particular attention to the nature of ethical, legal, contextual, and practice issues that arise from the establishment of a standard of competency-based supervision practice. The authors conclude with a discussion of challenges faced in clinical supervision and recommendations for best practices.