Social Work Supervision of Staff: A Primer and Scoping Review (2013 –2017)

AbstractSupervision of staff has a rich history within the social work profession, and is widely valued internationally for the support, knowledge, and skill it is perceived to provide. Moreover, quality supervision is championed for ensuring good client care. However, supervisors practicing within the social work profession have not typically had access to best practice information, nor accessed the parallel research related to the supervision of staff. A supervision primer provides an orientation to the supervision literature, including definitions and disciplinary perspectives. This sets the stage for a scoping review of social work supervision articles for the purpose of supporting supervisors in keeping current, locating, understanding, and applying literature to their practice. Seventy-nine conceptual and empirical articles first-authored by social workers were published in 36 journals between 2013 and 2017. The volume, location, context and nature of these articles are presented, pointing to an increased social work presence in the literature. Implications for supervisory practice, scholarship, and research are discussed.

Source: Clinical Social Work Journal - September 17, 2018 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research