Supervised practice placement; needs and expectations from the supervisors

Abstract

Aim: Supervised practice placement for biomedical laboratory scientist (BLS) students is an essential part of a BLS education. In placement, the BLS students meet experienced BLS as their supervisors. The purpose of this study is to elucidate the BLS supervisors’ needs, in order to excel supervised practice placement. Method: "I-wish-I-had" seminar followed by semi-structured in-depth interviews were conducted with biomedical laboratory scientists who also are experienced supervisors. A qualitative content analysis was carried out and patterns in the data material were identified and categorized. Result: Our findings indicate that BLS supervisors have different needs, wishes and inputs that can be categorized to either pre-placement period, in placement period, post-placement period, and/or to the overall framework of the placement period. The supervisors need time to both prepare and carry out supervision, and the following needs that were identified includes (i) supervisor competencies, (ii) learning communities (forum) for sharing of knowledge and experiences, (iii) team supervision, (iii) increased dialogue and clarifications of expectations with the education program (and student), (iv) harmonized placement periods, and (v) feedback from and evaluation of the placement period. Conclusion: Practice placement supervisors have needs, wishes, challenges and expectations that should be further characterized - with the intention of promoting quality in the Biomedical laboratory scientist education.

Keywords

• biomedical laboratory scientist (bls) education
• supervised practice placement
• placement supervisor
• quality in supervised placement