Nursing supervision in the mobile pre-hospital emergency care service

Abstract

Objective: To analyze limitations and potentialities of nursing supervision, according to the nursing team, of a Mobile Emergency Care Service. Method: Descriptive research, with a qualitative approach, using the Critical Incident Technique. Nurses and nursing technicians participated. Data were collected in a semi-structured, individual, recorded interview, later transcribed, followed by the grouping and categorization of Critical Incidents, using Bardin’s content analysis. Results: Seventy-seven critical incidents emerged from the interviews, 22% received positive and 78% negative references, indicating a predominance of factors that limit supervision. These factors were categorized into “Singularities of nursing supervision”, “Organizational conditions”, “People management”, and “Vacancy regulation”. Conclusion: Enhancing factors: institutional support, education as a supervision tool, team meetings, timely feedback and participatory management; limiting factors: indirect nursing supervision (nurse and technicians in different teams), lack of materials and maintenance and of institutional support, nurse work overload, conflicts, and lack of communication.