Pathway to postgraduate studies

Emilia first graduated with a Diploma in Nursing in her birth country of Zimbabwe in 1985. She left general nursing in 1987 to complete a Diploma in Psychiatric Nursing. After moving to New Zealand in 2003, she worked in inpatient mental health services for a year and then moved to her current position of community mental health nurse. She enrolled and completed a Post Graduate Certificate in Clinical Supervision through Waikato Institute of Technology in 2006 and proceeded to complete a Post Graduate Certificate and a Diploma in Health Sciences through the University of Auckland School of Nursing in 2008. An interest in clinical supervision led her to enroll for a Masters degree in Nursing in 2009.

Current work

'An exploration of the experiences of mental health and addictions nurses who provide clinical supervision within a New Zealand District Health Board'

This project is still under way. It is anticipated that the study will be completed in 2011. The study is a qualitative description of the experiences of nurse supervisors in a District Health Board. The aims of the study were to: describe the factors that influenced mental health and addictions nurses to take on the role of clinical supervisor, to explore how clinical supervisors linked previous clinical supervision experiences to current supervisor roles, to describe how frameworks, regulations and policies affected supervisory relationships and to identify supervisor needs. Emilia conducted face to face individual interviews with fifteen nurses from a range of mental health and addictions settings. Findings from this study indicate that the nurses made conscious decisions to take on clinical supervision roles. Participants considered that training to become supervisors was important and that clinical supervision knowledge and skills were closely linked to their existing nursing skills and practice. Another finding was that whilst the participants acknowledged the existence of legislative, regulatory and organizational frameworks to guide clinical supervision, they needed to balance this with the needs of the supervisees. It is hoped that the study findings will help to inform the District Health Board and will also add new information to literature on the experiences of clinical supervisors in mental health and addictions services.

Emilia currently practices as a community mental health nurse at Waikato District Health Board. She is also a clinical supervisor.