The supervisory relationships of community health workers in primary health care: social network analysis of ward-based outreach teams in Ngaka Modiri Molema District, South Africa.

Supportive supervision of CHWs can be thought of as a system of horizontal and vertical relationships that go beyond just one supervisor-supervisee interaction. In this study, supervisory relationships within teams functioned better than those between teams and the rest of the PHC system. Understanding these relationships is key to designing effective supportive supervision in CHW programmes. SNA can be a valuable approach in identifying the relationships to be strengthened.