Abstract—Self-care is a human function that should be
carried out by the individuals themselves, in order to preserve
their life, health and self-esteem. During the past ten years,
some approaches used by physicians and nurses to support
self-care were identified to complement professional practices
and structures, such as clinical supervision or leadership. This
quantitative study was developed in a hospital in the North of
Portugal. The start question was: “How to organize the system
of clinical supervision in order to promote self-care and to
contribute to the quality of care?” Participants were 110
patients hospitalized in a ward of the above-mentioned hospital.
Two instruments were used to collect data. The first was a
questionnaire focused on self-care and was filled out by
rehabilitation nurses. The second instrument evaluated
self-care as recorded in nurses’ electronic records filled during
the caring process. Data analysis pointed out that self-care notes
in patient anamnesis were limited to hygiene, while the degree
of dependence was often ignored. There appears to be some
confusion in the records regarding concepts and evaluation of
the degree of dependence in self-care. Suggestions are made to
promote self-care inside the system of clinical supervision, in
order to provide appropriate healthcare to patients.
Index Terms—Clinical supervision, self-care, dependency,
quality of care.
Wilson Abreu, Cristina Barroso, and Maria de Fátima Segadães are with
the Porto School of Nursing, Porto, Portugal. Rua Dr. António Bernardino de
Almeida, CO 4200-072 Porto (e-mail: wjabreu@esenf.pt, cmpinto@esenf.pt,
fsegadaes@esenf.pt).
Silvia Teixeira is with the Porto School of Nursing, Porto, Portugal. Rua
Dr. António Bernardino de Almeida, CO 4200-072 Porto (e-mail:
silvia.smmt@gmail.com).
Cite: Wilson Abreu, Cristina Barroso, Maria de Fátima Segadães, and Silvia Teixeira, "Promotion of Self-Care in Clinical Practice: Implications for Clinical Supervision in Nursing," International Journal of Information and Education Technology vol. 5, no. 1, pp. 6-9, 2015.