Supportive Supervision

Supervision is a systematic process for increasing efficiency of the health personnel by developing their knowledge, perfecting their skills, improving their attitudes towards their work and increasing their motivation. It is thus an extension of training.

STDCs need to carry out supervisory visit so as to visit all districts at least in an year. Selection of districts for supervision could be made based on the routine monitoring. Districts which require support need to be given preferences.

Supervisory visits by STDCs should not be a fault finding exercise but need to a collaborative effort to identify problems and find solutions. It should be an effort to provide ongoing support for solving problems and to overcome difficulties, provide constructive feedback on performance and continuous encouragement.  It should also aim to build capacity of the health staff to implement the program procedures correctly, to assess HR and training needs and to ensure data quality assurance.