Dietitians and supervision: should we be doing more?

As the role of the dietitian has expanded over recent years, many are becom ing increasingly involved in the care and management of vulnerable individu als, both alone and as part of multidisciplinary teams. This raises an impo rtant question - how are we as a profession managing our changing role in t he health care setting? The advent of Clinical Governance means there is a need for dietitians to join the debate on the issue of supervision, which h as been raging in the nursing and other health professions over recent year s. This article attempts to define the terms supervision and clinical super vision both globally and in the context of dietetics, to describe models of clinical supervision being used in other professional groups and to put fo rward a framework for addressing whether there is a need for clinical super vision in all areas of dietetic practice.