Clinical supervision is a broad concept, having been adopted and integrated into many helping professions. Definitions tend to delimit the boundaries, range, role and depth of supervision. As to the content of clinical supervision, this tends to be informed by its area of application as supervision of a specific mode of intervention may encompass some didactic teaching of skills central to that application. In nursing, clinical supervision definitions tend to encompass aspects of learning, interpersonal support and oversight - however, not all authors agree on this basic summation. The UKCC has acknowledged the need for a range of models to address the diversity of practice within nursing.
Most models do, however, tend to encompass the above dimensions.
Differences in emphasis upon each of the elements may be in evidence according to the issue presented, the developmental level of the supervisor and supervisee, their career stage, the model of nursing and supervision used and extraneous factors imposing upon the relationship. For example, a beginning practitioner may need additional oversight and educational input compared to a seasoned practitioner, who may need relatively more interpersonal support. Supervision models also vary in the emphasis given to each of the above elements, sometimes in accord with the orientation and view of the originating theorist. Models derived by educationalists stress learning, models derived by managers tend to stress oversight, service quality and outcomes and those developed from psychotherapeutic approaches often emphasise interpersonal support. A term used to describe a formal process of professional support and learning which enables individual practitioners to develop knowledge and competence, assume responsibility for their own practice and enhance consumer protection and safety of care in complex clinical situations.