Supervision, Mentoring and Supporting Learners

This clinical supervision training is for UK healthcare professionals who supervise students on placement, oversee doctors or other professionals in training, preceptor newly registered colleagues, or mentor and coach peers. It suits doctors, nurses, midwives, nursing associates, allied health professionals, pharmacy and dental professionals and social workers, from the occasional supervisor to the experienced educator.

It begins by separating roles that are often confused. A clinical or practice supervisor works alongside the learner day to day. An educational supervisor or practice assessor reviews evidence and makes progress decisions. A mentor supports longer-term development, often outside line management. A coach helps someone find their own solutions. A preceptor supports a new registrant through transition. Holding two of these roles for the same person can create tension, for example between giving supportive feedback and making a pass or fail judgement, so knowing which role you hold protects both you and the learner.

The course is designed to take approximately 2 hours, including reading, reflection points, a written reflective account and a 15-question assessment. It is self-paced and taken on our course portal; see the course catalogue for related titles. Healthcare Practise UK is an independent provider. We are not affiliated with any UK regulator or the NHS, and no regulator has reviewed this course. It is not a substitute for any formal trainer recognition or practice assessor preparation your education body requires.

Even without a formal educational role, every professional has a duty to support learning: Good medical practice (2024) and the NMC Code both say so, and the other regulators' standards contain similar expectations. The course also names the education bodies in each nation, including NHS England's workforce, training and education function, NHS Education for Scotland, Health Education and Improvement Wales, NIMDTA and NIPEC, and covers the Equality Act 2010 duties that shape reasonable adjustments for disabled learners.

• Module 1, roles and frameworks: supervision, mentoring, coaching, preceptorship and assessment compared; regulatory frameworks; the professional duty to support learning; and the national education bodies.
• Module 2, a positive learning environment: psychological safety, setting expectations in the first conversation, inclusion and differential attainment, reasonable adjustments, protected time and the hidden curriculum of role modelling.
• Module 3, teaching and assessing in practice: how adults learn at work, the one-minute preceptor and SNAPPS, graded responsibility and patient consent for learner involvement, fair workplace-based assessment, and learning in community, remote and interprofessional settings.
• Module 4, feedback that helps people learn: principles of effective feedback, the Pendleton, ask-tell-ask, SBI and R2C2 models, giving difficult feedback with example wording, and seeking feedback on your own supervision.
• Module 5, supporting qualified staff: Proctor's normative, formative and restorative functions, restorative supervision and the Professional Nurse Advocate role, Schwartz Rounds, mentoring and coaching with the GROW model, and preceptorship.
• Module 6, learners in difficulty: recognising warning signs, exploring causes and agreeing an action plan, escalation and documentation, "failing to fail", protecting learners from bullying and sexual harassment, and developing yourself as a supervisor.

Worked examples include a foundation doctor asked to do her first lumbar puncture with the registrar "around somewhere", a supervisor whose only feedback after a medicines round is "fine, well done", and a well-liked student midwife whose documentation keeps omitting key observations.

The course favours methods that fit into a busy day. The one-minute preceptor has five steps: get a commitment, probe for evidence, teach a general rule, reinforce what was right and correct mistakes, each with an example prompt. Ask-tell-ask turns a vague comment into specific, usable feedback in under a minute, and the course explains why the "feedback sandwich" is widely discouraged: learners learn to discount the praise and miss the message.

On responsibility, it describes levels of supervision from observation, through direct and indirect supervision, to independent practice, and is clear that learners must not be left to act beyond their competence or counted as staff in a way that undermines supernumerary status. On assessment, it treats honest judgement as a patient safety duty: passing a learner who has not met the standard puts future patients at risk. Where a learner's behaviour itself is the concern, our bullying and harassment training and accountability and delegation course cover the wider standards.

"Apply it" tasks ask you to list the education lead or university link for each type of learner you supervise, try the one-minute preceptor with a learner this week, and ask your next learner what helped most and what they would change. Your final reflective account covers the most important things you learned about supporting learners and colleagues, which approach you will use differently and with whom, and how you will seek feedback on your supervision.

The 15-question assessment includes the NMC's supervisor and assessor rules, a patient who declines a student, a mentee who discloses working while impaired, a learner with dyslexia and a student who reports unwanted sexual comments. The pass mark is 12 (80%), and you receive a certificate of completion from Healthcare Practise UK. Passing supports your learning record; it does not by itself demonstrate competence.

For CPD, record the time you actually spend, which may be more or less than the two-hour estimate. Nurses, midwives and nursing associates should note that self-directed online learning done alone normally counts towards the NMC's individual CPD hours rather than its 20 participatory hours; if you work through it with colleagues and discuss it, it can become participatory. Doctors reflect on CPD at appraisal, and the GMC does not set fixed hours. Other regulators set their own rules, so check yours and any employer requirements. Keep the certificate and your reflection together.

Supervising, teaching and mentoring are themselves recognised as CPD and supporting information, and learner feedback collected over a year is strong evidence for appraisal.

Individually, it suits anyone about to take on a student, trainee or preceptee for the first time, and experienced supervisors who want a structured refresh. For organisations, it gives a ward, practice or department a common language for feedback and escalation; you can assign it to supervisors through our team credits scheme and see completion dates on the manager dashboard.

The course belongs to our career and wellbeing courses. Natural next steps are Clinical Leadership Essentials, which builds on psychological safety and compassionate leadership at team level, and Burnout, Resilience and Wellbeing, for the restorative side of supporting colleagues. The revalidation portfolio course shows how to turn your supervision work into portfolio evidence, and Locum and Agency Working covers supporting temporary colleagues who join your team. The which course do I need tool can suggest others.