Clinical supervision in public hospitals in Lesotho: Nurse managers’ support for registered nurses

Background Clinical supervision is regarded as essential for nurse managers in diverse healthcare settings to enhance nurse satisfaction, competence, and retention, leading to improved nursing care quality. The study aimed to explore and describe nurse managers’ support provided to registered nurses during clinical supervision at public hospitals in Lesotho. Methods The study employed an exploratory descriptive qualitative research design to explore and describe the support provided to registered nurses during clinical supervision. Data was gathered through eight in-depth individual face-to-face interviews with participants purposefully selected from the public hospitals in Lesotho. Face-to-face interviews were recorded and transcribed verbatim for analysis. Data was analyzed by the researcher and the co-coder using thematic analysis as proposed by Braun and Clarke. Results Three themes emerged from the data; namely: nurse managers’ supervisory dimensions to facilitate healthcare quality, nurse managers’ supervisory practices to capacitate and support registered nurses and nurse managers’ challenges with clinical supervision. The findings indicate that nurse managers provide structural support to registered nurses, apply various supervisory methods and processes, and supervise nursing practices in ways that relate to patient care outcomes during clinical supervision. Conclusion Nurse managers guide registered nurses through performance monitoring, quality assurance, and resource supervision to uphold standards and policies. Supervision of registered nurses also support skill development, conflict management, and psycho-social well-being. However, challenges include addressing registered nurses’ attitudes, managing skill gaps, and overcoming nurse managers’ own knowledge limitations.