Relationships with Supervisors

My first experience with my Curtin clinical tutor was a good one. She started our session by asking me what I wanted to get out of this prac, what I thought I needed to work on, what my learning style was and how I wanted our sessions to run e.g. with her standing back and just observing or playing a more integral role in the session. I commented that I would like her to interrupt only if I felt that I was doing something drastically wrong but still be available for support if I felt that something could be performed in a better way. She said that was fine and would only interrupt if something was unsafe or unless I asked her a question.


I was very appreciative that this supervisor was willing to adapt her teaching methods to suit my learning style and seemed to take everything I wanted to learn on board. As often supervisors can get carried away with the assessment part of prac, instead of the facilitated learning that we as students pay for.


So quite contented that my supervisor had listened to everything I had said we went off to see the patient we had organised to see. I started my subjective and was interrupted every couple of questions by my supervisor whereby she would ask me to ask a specific question with which I was just about to ask. Initially I let it slide and asked the question then as it continued to happen I started to get more frustrated and said still in a polite manner that “I was just about to ask that”. Then with my subjective over I started my objective assessment, this continued along the same manner with my supervisor interrupting me asking me about different things I should assess (some of which I had already performed). My supervisor’s interruptions continued throughout the whole treatment session and by the end I was starting to get quite frustrated.


Upon completion of the session with the patient my supervisor asked to talk to her about how I thought it went. I was unsure of whether or not to tell her how frustrated I was at her interruptions, especially because she had asked me previously how I had wanted the sessions to run. I decided to tell her as I felt that if I didn’t future sessions would continue along the same way and could eventually lead to some big problems. I told her that I felt her frequent interruptions interrupted my flow of the session and I felt very frustrated because often the things she would suggest was the things I was just about to ask or do and it made it seem as if I wasn’t going to do them. She was very open and admitted her mistake and agreed to do as initially mentioned and only interrupt if safety was compromised or I seeked guidance.

Future sessions ran very smoothly and our relationship had drastically improved and I feel much more comfortable seeking her guidance. Reflecting back on the situation I wonder if I should have tried to communicate my frustration to my tutor during the session with the patient, and I think I made the right choice by waiting till after the treatment session because although it may have saved me a lot of frustration I think it would have possibly compromised professionalism with the patient.