THE QUALITY OF INTERACTION BETWEEN SUPERVISING PUBLIC HEALTH MIDWIVES (SPHMs) AND PUBLIC HEALTH MIDWIVES(PHMs) DURING SUPERVISION IN MATERNAL AND CHILD HEALTH CARE SETTINGS IN MATARA DISTRICT, SRI LANKA

Background The supervisor-supervisee interaction is an important component of supervision. Regular facilitative supervision ensures service providers follow correct guidelines, continuously seek to improve their performance, overcome operational barriers and maintain motivation of supervisees Objective To measure the quality of interaction between the Supervising Public Health Midwife (SPHM) and the Public Health Midwife (PHM) during supervision. Methods This was a cross-sectional study, using triangulation of data obtained from structured observations and audio tape records of supervisor-supervisee interactions and written records of all supervision activities. Twenty four SPHM participated in the study. This study was undertaken in the district of Matara. Results Supervisors spent less time on supervising client care issues than on supervising facility level issues and interacting with clients. The weakest skills among the SPHMs were ‘seeking client input' and ‘discussing the next visit' and the strongest skills were ‘giving feedback', ‘discussing/interpreting data' and ‘developing rapport'. Skills of supervision increased with the service duration of the SPHM but none were able to achieve the cut-off mark for satisfactory overall quality of interaction. Conclusions This study indicated that the overall quality of interaction between the SPHM and the PHM during supervision was poor. SPHMs lacked skills in prioritisation of supervision activities and time management. They also lacked other necessary skills that ensure a higher quality of SPHM-PHM interaction