Clinical Supervision and Peer Coaching

Clinical Supervision and Peer Coaching

Introduction

Medicine is a field of science that is crucial to the living beings. It is the science of healing patients by the use of medicines as practiced by doctors, physicians and those engaged in this profession. This field of science is aimed at prevention of diseases and their remedy by application of diagnosis and then required treatment. With the passage of time, medicine has evolved significantly and great developments have been made in this regard. Use of sophisticated technology in the treatment processes has become common. The use of X-rays and similar diagnosis techniques has proved to be extremely fruitful for the cause. In short, medical science can be defined as the science that has a purpose of maintaining health by treating diseases along with their prevention. Medical science comprises of a number of branches including (Bowman, 2000).

A number of approaches are taken in order to deliver the best healthcare to the patients. As discussed above, healthcare sciences have evolved greatly in the recent past and are still continuing to do so. At the same time, the number of approaches to provide medical care has also experienced an increase. Two of such approaches that are quite common and effective are clinical counseling and peer coaching. This article would compare both of this approaches highlighting the strengths and weaknesses of both and their effects on general healthcare practices. Both of these approaches are in vogue since recent times and are aimed at delivering optimal medical care to the patients. However, both of these approaches differ from each other in the way they make use of available resources (Bowman, 2000).

Discussion

Clinical supervision and peer coaching, both of these approaches for the provision of healthcare services are considered to be amongst the common ones. The purpose of these approaches is to increase the expertise of the medical care practitioner in his/her subject so that he/she can provide enhanced healthcare services to the patients. Although both of these approaches sound different, however their aim is same (Falender, 2004).

Clinical Supervision

Clinical supervision is one of the approaches that are taken to fulfill the objective of increasing a medical practitioner's or professional's knowledge regarding medicine and healthcare so that better services can be delivered to the patients. It is defined as a mutual process of communication between two or more professionals of medicine, either of a same domain or different domains, with the objective of increasing their knowledge regarding the subject through sharing of ideas, professional experiences, and sharing of knowledge. The person who supervises the process has more expertise, skills and subject knowledge than the rest of the participants, and is therefore considered to be the supervisor. The participants may also discuss their caseworks with each other so as to analyze them from their professional perspective (Falender & Shafranske, 2004). This communication among professionals enhances their professional skills which can result in improved medical care services to the patients. Clinical supervision is found to be very ...