Amelia Lyons
Amelia works as a clinical supervisor trainer in Aneurin Bevan University Health Board, as well as being trained as a MH Nurse, she is also a Group Analyst, a counsellor, a trainer and an accredited Balint Group leader. Amelia worked in higher education for two decades before entering Nursing in Mental Health. Already a trained psychotherapist, she wanted to work in severe mental health and spent some years working on an adult forensic/rehab ward. She undertook additional training as a group analyst running a therapy group for patients in secondary care.
In 2016 the clinical supervisor trainer post was specially developed to grow clinical supervision in ABUHB. The need for supervision was recognised. There are 3 ways in which Amelia aims to realise this opportunity in role : i) by designing and leading an annual in house programme for health professionals to train as approved clinical supervisors; ii) by running supervision groups to support supervisors in their clinical practice and iii) by brokering some clinical supervision within the organisation. Amelia also works with the regional and local Balint group network facilitating reflective practice groups for Doctors in general practice and psychiatry.
What does clinical supervision for nurses mean to you?
It is about giving Nurses the opportunity to take a breath, slow down and really think about their practise in a safe space. Group supervision offers the possibility of a diversity of perspectives on the situation, it accelerates the learning for participants as well as enabling them to contribute to the learning of others and feeling valued and thoughtful in a confidential setting. When one person is learning, everyone in the group is learning. Participants learn to share openly and appropriately, support in the group is felt, skills are shared and signposted and delight is taken at the progress of peers. Nurses and health professionals emanating from different divisions in the health board participate in diverse groups and deeply value encountering each other in this way, feeling less isolated and in this way a more holistic understanding of patients is also achieved.
Nurses may need different kinds of supervision at different stages in their career, at the start they may prefer to be facilitated by an experienced professional, later on, they may prefer a peer group or a specialist kind of supervision approach to support their specialist practise and as they progress to the very established stages of their career they may want opportunities to train as supervisors and give back to those starting out.
