Speak Out June 2018

SPOTLIGHT ON PROFESSIONAL SUPPORT

What to look for in a supervisor or mentor

Receiving adequate and appropriate professional support is important at all stages of your career. Therefore, finding a clinician with the right skills and experience is very important for your clinical, professional and career development. While supervision and mentoring should both create opportunities for reflective practice and professional development, there are significant differences between these two processes. For more details on how these two processes differ see the Associations’ position statement: T he role and value of professional support on the SPA website . One key difference to be mindful of is the purpose of the process. One of the purposes of supervision is to ensure accountability, and competence of staff in performing all the duties of their role in line with the employing organisation’s clinical governance. In contrast, the purpose of mentoring is to provide broad professional support to achieve career goals. There are specific skills and experiences necessary to effectively provide supervision and mentoring. As the recipient of supervision or mentoring, it is important to check that your supervisor or mentor has the skills and experience necessary for you to get the most out of the process. Also, as with any information, whether you read something in a journal article, learn something in a workshop or at a special interest group, it is always important to critically reflect upon and evaluate the validity and reliability of the information. This is equally true for information given by a supervisor or mentor. Supervision and mentoring can occur: • Face to face, • By phone, • By Skype, FaceTime or other video conference software, • By email (in conjunction with one of the above if for supervision).

Regardless of how the contact occurs, for both supervision and mentoring, contact should be: • Planned – both parties know when the next contact will occur, • Regular – e.g.weekly, fortnightly, monthly (for early career speech pathologists, SPA recommends weekly supervision and monthly mentoring). If you are in a supervision or mentoring relationship, and have any questions or concerns about the process, or information you are being given by your supervisor / mentor, follow the below steps: 1. First raise your questions or concerns with your supervisor/ mentor. Clear and timely communication about any issues is fundamental to the success of any relationship. Checking in with your supervisor or mentor will help clarify if there has been a misunderstanding or if there is an issue which needs to be addressed further. 2. If the issue is still unresolved, seek information on the SPA website and/or contact the most appropriate staff member on 1300 368 835 or office@speechpathologyaustralia. org.au Mentoring issues – contact Professional Support Advisor Ethics issues – contact Senior Advisor Professional Issues and Ethics Practice issues – contact Senior Advisor Professional Practice Meredith Prain Professional Support Advisor

DID YOU KNOW? The SPA mentoring webpage has been updated! www.speechpathologyaustralia.org.au/mentoring

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June 2018 www.speechpathologyaustralia.org.au

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