Nurses’ Experiences of Process-Oriented Supervision—Acquiring New Approaches to Demanding Situations

Abstract

Background: Providing nursing care for patients and relatives requires a great effort from a nurse. It is therefore important for the nurse to have the opportunity to reflect on the caring acts included in process-oriented nursing supervision (PRONS). The overall objective of the nursing supervision is to support the professional development identity, competences, skills and ethics in different situations in nursing care. Aim: To investigate nurses’ experiences of the model of purging, playing and learning (PPL) according to Eriksson theory in a (PRONS) related to strengthen safe care, quality and professional development. Method: A qualitative study with individual interviews and the data was analyzed using qualitative interpretive content analysis. Participants: All eleven registered participated nurses were from southwestern Sweden and worked in different hospital units. Ethical Considerations: The study carried out in accordance with the ethical guidelines laid down in the Helsinki Declaration and according to the recommendations of the regional ethics committee. Findings: Three categories were identified, valuable purging in the process, responsive playing and awareness of learning. The study found that by participating in PRONS the nurses had developed new approaches with different “tools” when difficult situations occurred in daily nursing practice. Conclusion: PRONS with the model PPL has an important role to support nurses in daily nursing practice. The study highlights that there are residual successful effects after PRONS for the nurses in managing care situations that experienced strengthen quality in care and professional development.