Research supervision.
BACKGROUND: Nurses are expected to base their practice on research, and to carry out research themselves. Whereas research supervision is useful to the experienced researcher, it is vital to the novice. It is surprising, therefore, that there is little published work on research supervision. Practical advice based on first-hand experience is the focus for most work and, ironically, very little of that available is research based. This literature review is categorised into three main sections: the supervision relationship, good practice in supervision, and the context of supervision. A review is necessary to address what information is known, to provide guidance both to supervisors and supervisees, and to highlight the need for further work. CONCLUSION: The little research evidence that is available suggests a way forward based on practical experience of both supervising and being supervised. The implications of this are briefly outlined.