The present research study is a supervision project which was carried out between 2004-2006.  The overall aim of the research was to investigate how caring science supervision can support carers in integrating caring science and can contribute to a constructive way of integrating caring science knowledge with praxis.

The research project consisted of supervision given to groups of carers in two different contexts where a caring science model for supervision was tested and developed.

The experience of how carers integrate caring science knowledge through supervision has been studied by interviewing carers. Seven were interviewed in the first study about how they experienced their own learning process by participating in group supervision. The second study focused on how the supervisor’s selection of different supervision methods can support the carers’ development and understanding for the patient’s lifeworld.

The interviews were analysed with the help of a reflective lifeworld approach. The results from the seven interviews consisted of a description of the essence and seven constituents. The results show that knowledge about caring, from the carers’ point of view, is an attitude that is taken for granted. With this as a starting point the carers listen and read what has happened to the patient in different situations. In the supervision session the carer and the supervisor have worked out a critical caring science investigation of the patient’s situation and developed new strategies for the patient’s caring. The interviewed carers point out the importance of a free zone, a learning room in supervision, where they can reflect and, in a constructive dialogue with each other, work with the patient’s situation together with the supervisor.

In the second research study the supervisor’s selection of methods in supervision is in focus. The aim of using these different methods was to support the development of knowledge grounded in caring science. The supervision methods support the carers in the reflection process and stimulate them to develop good skills in the relationship with the patient.  The results also show, in two ways, how important the supervisor’s role is for the supervision process. Firstly in terms of being able to see and understand what the focus is in the carer’s narrative of the patient’s situation.  Secondly how the selection of an appropriate method can support the carers’ understanding of what obstacles there can be and which possibilities there can be for the caring of the patients. This work in the supervision process demands that supervisors are aware of how the group process can be integrated with the learning process.

Keywords: caring science, phenomenology, lifeworld, reflection, dialogue, supervision, supervision methods. 

A SABBATICAL LEAVE during the spring of 1999 has led to an ongoing exchange program between CEDAR CREST COLLEGE, a small women's liberal arts college located in northeastern Pennsylvania, and the UNIVERSITY OF VÄXJÖ, a major regional university in southeastern Sweden. The author visited the University of Växjö to pursue her research interest in transcultural nursing and health care and to exchange information on nursing education and practice, with a focus on mental health nursing and health care. Her long-range goal was to develop further faculty and student exchanges.The first author instituted an ongoing exchange program for nursing students and faculty in a small women's liberal arts college in eastern Pennsylvania and a regional university in southeastern Sweden. A site visit to Sweden in 1999 initiated discussion of differences in educational methodologies and mental health care between Sweden and the United States. This visit served as the basis for continued interaction between the two institutions, including a faculty and student visit in 2001 that has broadened the scope of study beyond mental health care.