Niki Simbani
Niki Simbani is a Lecturer and Professional Lead in mental health nursing at Keele University with clinical expertise in acute mental health nursing in the UK and is a great believer of Safewards. Her teaching experience is in both pre and post registration nursing programmes (BSc, MSc) with interest in adult and child & adolescent mental health and research. Her other interests are in Equality, Diversity and Inclusion in nurse education and practice, she is currently leading on the Decolonising of the curriculum agenda within the school of Nursing and Midwifery. Niki is a current PhD candidate; her thesis is on clinical supervision in acute inpatient mental health wards focusing on how clinical supervision can be improved to suit the contemporary and challenging nursing environment.
In view of the global pandemic, Niki is keen for clinical supervision to be introduced to nursing students and those new to the nursing career through preceptorship programmes. This follows the success of the Solution Focused clinical supervision groups introduced to her nursing students over the past few years. She strongly believes that if all nurses and organisations prioritise clinical supervision, benefits of this support tool can be enjoyed by all involved including patients and their families.
What does clinical supervision for nurses mean to you?
Clinical supervision is a support tool for nurses which is based on a professional relationship between a supervisor and supervisee (one to one clinical supervision). This relationship can be between a number of supervisees (group clinical supervision) or between two supervisees (peer clinical supervision). In dealing with patients, nurses can find themselves in challenging and overwhelming situations, therefore, need one or more types of clinical supervision. The recent global pandemic has illuminated the need for support for nurses yet there is a number of nurses practicing without any support. The effects of Covid 19 on health care professionals is massive, nurses had to deal with very ill and at times dying patients, therefore having time to talk to another professional about how one is coping and dealing with such traumatic situations cannot be underestimated. Clinical supervision time does not only offer nurses time to talk about their feelings, but it is a check in moment where interventions are reviewed and improved which in turn can have a positive outcome on patient care. Clinical supervision is therefore a fundamental aspect of nursing and should be accessed by all involved in the care of patients including nursing students. Health Education Institutions (HEIs) can do more to introduce nursing students to clinical supervision as part of their training so that they can embrace clinical supervision as part of their nursing careers.
