The impact of a supportive supervision intervention on health workers in Niassa, Mozambique: a cluster-controlled trial
Open accessAbstract
BACKGROUND: Regular supportive supervision is critical to retaining and motivating staff in resource-constrained settings. Previous studies have shown the particular contribution that supportive supervision can make to improving job satisfaction amongst over-stretched health workers in such settings. METHODS: The Support, Train and Empower Managers (STEM) study designed and implemented a supportive supervision intervention and measured its' impact on health workers using a controlled trial design with a three-arm pre- and post-study in Niassa Province in Mozambique. Post-intervention interviews with a small sample of health workers were also conducted. RESULTS: The quantitative measurements of job satisfaction, emotional exhaustion and work engagement showed no statistically significant differences between end-line and baseline. The qualitative data collected from health workers post the intervention showed many positive impacts on health workers not captured by this quantitative survey. CONCLUSIONS: Health workers perceived an improvement in their performance and attributed this to the supportive supervision they had received from their supervisors following the intervention. Reports of increased motivation were also common. An unexpected, yet important consequence of the intervention, which participants directly attributed to the supervision intervention, was the increase in participation and voice amongst health workers in intervention facilities.
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Claims the paper makes
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
Organizational strategies such as mentorship, wellness workshops, and structured supervision, as demonstrated in the Mozambique STEM intervention, enabled healthcare workers to build confidence and improve performance through constructive, on-site supervisory support.
“Organizational strategies such as mentorship, wellness workshops, and structured supervision, as demonstrated in the Mozambique Support, Train and Empower Managers (STEM) intervention, enabled healthcare workers to build confidence and improve performance through constructive, on-site supervisory support (14).”
From Management strategies for healthcare worker burnout in Sub-Saharan Africa: an integrative review (2026) · cites this paper as [14]
Split into 2 atoms — 0 confirmed, 2 partially supported, 0 disputed, 0 misattributed, 0 unverifiable. Expand the claim to see per-atom verdicts.
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredIn Botswana and Mozambique, organizational structures such as supportive supervision, clear communication, and participation in wellness activities were associated with improved motivation, teamwork and job satisfaction.
“In Botswana and Mozambique, organizational structures, such as supportive supervision, clear communication, and participation in wellness activities, were associated with improved motivation, teamwork and job satisfaction (13, 14).”
From Management strategies for healthcare worker burnout in Sub-Saharan Africa: an integrative review (2026) · cites this paper as [14]
The Results (Motivation; Participation and voice) report that Mozambique health workers perceived improved motivation and a more open, participatory workplace after supportive supervision. The Discussion reports no statistically significant improvement in job satisfaction in this trial. This paper does not establish improved teamwork or address wellness activities or Botswana; those parts may relate to the sentence’s other citation. (LLM, conf=0.88)
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredSupportive supervision programs improved teamwork, communication and provider motivation, even when changes in burnout scores were not statistically significant.
“Supportive supervision programs improved teamwork, communication and provider motivation, even when changes in burnout scores were not statistically significant (14).”
From Management strategies for healthcare worker burnout in Sub-Saharan Africa: an integrative review (2026) · cites this paper as [14]
The Results (Motivation; Participation and voice) report that health workers perceived greater motivation and a more open environment in which they could speak and be heard. The Results (Burnout) found no statistically significant change in emotional-exhaustion scores. Teamwork appears as an interview topic in Methods (Data collection), but our copy does not report that teamwork improved; the claimed improvements also omit that they were based on a small set of workers’ perceptions. (LLM, conf=0.85)
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredBurnout management in Sub-Saharan Africa is multifaceted, shaped by the interplay between organizational support, interpersonal relationships, individual burnout management strategies, and culturally grounded practices.
“Collectively, the findings demonstrate that burnout management in the region is multifaceted, shaped by the interplay between organizational support, interpersonal relationships, individual burnout management strategies, and culturally grounded practices (12–14, 19).”
From Management strategies for healthcare worker burnout in Sub-Saharan Africa: an integrative review (2026) · cites this paper as [14]
The Background (page unavailable) emphasizes management support and constructive supervision, and the Discussion (page unavailable) suggests that workload and resources may also influence emotional exhaustion. This supports an organizational dimension, but the paper does not establish the claimed interplay with individual burnout-management strategies or culturally grounded practices across sub-Saharan Africa. Its Results report no statistically significant change in emotional exhaustion after the intervention. (LLM, conf=0.85)
Experimental — accuracy not yet measured
Self-check
Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.
The self-check needs the paper’s full text.
The citation lists haven’t been fetched yet
References 17 · Cited by 72
Research works printed but not linked: 16
- [1]McAuliffe E, Galligan M, Revill P, Kamwendo F, Sidat M, Masanja H, DePinho H, Araujo E. Factors influencing job preferences of health workers providing obstetric care: results from discrete choice experiments in Malawi, Mozambique and Tanzania. Globalization Health 2016 (revised). PMC5175394 27998288
- [4]Bosch-Capblanch X Garner P Primary health care supervision in developing countries Trop Med Int Health 2008 13 369 383 10.1111/j.1365-3156.2008.02012.x 18397400 · DOI
- [5]Bradley S Kamwendo F Masanja H de Pinho H Waxman R Boostrom C McAuliffe E An in-depth exploration of health worker supervision in Malawi and Tanzania BMC Hum Res Health 2013 11 43 10.1186/1478-4491-11-43 PMC3849462 24007354 · DOI
- [7]Management Sciences for Health, Supervisor competence self-assessment. Cambridge, MA: Management Sciences for Health; 1998.
- [8]Warr P Cook J Wall T Scales for the measurement of some work attitudes and aspects of psychological well-being J Occup Psychol 1979 52 2 129 48 10.1111/j.2044-8325.1979.tb00448.x · DOI
- [9]McAuliffe E Manafa O Maseko F Bowie C White E Understanding job satisfaction amongst mid-level cadres in Malawi: the contribution of organisational justice Reprod Health Matters 2009 17 33 80 90 10.1016/S0968-8080(09)33443-6 19523585 · DOI
- [10]Maslach C Jackson SE Maslach Burnout Inventory manual (2nd Edition) 1993 Palo Alto, CA Consulting Psychologists Press
- [13]Schaufeli WB Salanova M González-Romá V Bakker AB The measurement of engagement and burnout: a two sample confirmatory factor analytic approach J Happiness Stud Springer 2002 3 1 71 92 10.1023/A:1015630930326 · DOI · Paper page
- [14]Schaufeli WB Bakker AB Salanova M The measurement of work engagement with a short questionnaire: a cross-national study Educ Psychol Meas 2006 66 4 701 16 10.1177/0013164405282471 · DOI · Paper page
- [15]Bakker AB Albrecht SL Leiter MP Work engagement: further reflections on the state of play Eur J Work Organ Psy 2011 20 1 74 88 10.1080/1359432X.2010.546711 · DOI
- [16]Storm K Rothmann S A psychometric analysis of the Maslach Burnout Inventory - general survey in the South African Police Service South African Journal of Psychology 2003 33 4 219 226 10.1177/008124630303300404 · DOI
- [17]Rouleau D Fournier P Philibert A Mbengue B Dumont A The effects of midwives’ job satisfaction on burnout, intention to quit and turnover: a longitudinal study in Senegal Hum Res Health 2012 10 9 10.1186/1478-4491-10-9 PMC3444355 22546053 · DOI · Paper page
- [18]Bakker AB Demerouti E The job demands-resources model: state of the art J Manage Psychol 2007 22 309 328 10.1108/02683940710733115 · DOI · Paper page
- [19]Bakker AB Leiter MP Work engagement: a handbook of essential theory and research 2010 New York Psychology Press
- [20]Van den Broeck A Vansteenkiste M de Witte H Lens W Explaining the relationships between job characteristics, burnout and engagement: the role of basic psychological need satisfaction Work Stress 2008 22 277 294 10.1080/02678370802393672 · DOI
- [21]Halbesleben JRB Bakker AB Leiter MP A meta-analysis of work engagement: relationships with burnout, demands, resources and consequences Work engagement: a handbook of essential theory and research 2010 New York Psychology Press 102 117
- Authors
- Madede, T., Sidat, M., McAuliffe, E., Patricio, S. R., Uduma, O., Galligan, M., Bradley, S., & Cambe, I.
- Affiliations
- Eduardo Mondlane University (MZ)
- Trinity College Dublin (IE)
- University College Dublin (IE)
- City, University of London (GB)
- Venue
- Human Resources for Health
- Published
- 2017-09-02
- Volume
- 15
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 58-58
- ISSN
- 1478-4491 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC5581457
- OpenAlex
- W2751626265
- Cited by
- 72
- References
- 17
- Citations by year
- 2026: 5 · 2025: 6 · 2024: 13 · 2023: 12 · 2022: 6 · 2021: 13 · 2020: 6 · 2019: 9 · 2018: 2
- FWCI
- 7.99
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Human Resources for Health (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- City Research Online (City University London) (acceptedVersion)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
- Funders
- Directorate-General for Development and Cooperation - EuropeAid (DCI-SANTE/2010/257-308)
- Irish Aid
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Health Professions › Emergency Medical Services › Global Health Workforce Issues
- Health Sciences › Nursing › Research and Theory › Nursing education and management
- Social Sciences › Human Factors and Ergonomics › Employee Performance and Management
- Keywords
- supportive supervision, healthcare workers, job satisfaction, emotional exhaustion, work engagement, health worker motivation, health workforce retention, resource-limited settings
- MeSH terms
- Work Performance, Attitude of Health Personnel, Clinical Competence, Community Health Workers, Female, Humans, Male, Mozambique, Personnel Management, Professional Autonomy, Total Quality Management, Quality Improvement
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
