My primary research area is professional development of healthcare professionals, with an emphasis on the role of supervision and clinical training. Graduate students learn the theory of how healthcare practice works in the classroom, but like learning to drive, the books can only help so much. Clinical supervisors play the critical role of guiding novice practitioners through the process of building competencies, bouncing back from mistakes, and honing clinical skills. At the same time, supervisors have to protect clients/patients and ensure their trainees are providing quality care. Supervisors and training programs have to determine whether a trainee has reached competency by the end of their training and sometimes have to have hard conversations about a trainee’s ability to continue training or work in the field. The tension between the roles of talent development and being the final arbiter of whether a trainee has met competency requirements is felt by both supervisors and their trainees, which makes the relationship dynamics between them complex.
Much of my work in this area has focused on the field of genetic counseling, where practitioners work with patients to help them “understand and adapt to the medical, psychological and familial implications of genetic contributions to disease” (National Society of Genetic Counselors). I’ve been part of research groups that have developed preliminary supervision competencies, tested models of clinical practice and supervision, and measured. My lab is currently prioritizing several areas:
- Developing measures to quantify things like the quality of the relationship between trainees and supervisors and patients’ perspectives of clinicians’ cultural engagement skills;
- Understanding the impact of social justice issues on the training and practice of genetic counseling;
- Determining how to accurately and reliably assess competence of healthcare trainees, supervisors, and educators; and
- Understanding the role of anxiety and perfectionism in healthcare training.
Ultimately, my lab’s goal is to help create empirically supported methods of teaching and providing supervision to healthcare trainees that promote clinical excellence, cultural engagement, and the well-being of all parties, while reducing the impacts of burnout, bias, and stress.