Giving Feedback

What’s a practical way to provide feedback?

Feedback encourages learners to continue with desirable behaviours and helps them understand errors and modify faulty techniques. Regular brief feedback is much more effective than occasional lengthy critiques.

Receiving criticism is hard; make sure you create a supportive teaching environment so the learner does not feel overly vulnerable. This may be helped by warning the learner when you plan to give feedback. The learner can also choose what aspect of performance to receive feedback on in the early stages of a clinical rotation.

Feedback should be

• Descriptive rather than evaluative
  • “You did not appear interested in Mrs Braydon’s social problems” (Evaluative)
  • “Make sure you acknowledge the patient’s social problems as well as the purely medical issues” (Descriptive)
• Specific, not general
  • “That was a good history” (General)
  • “You did well to include a review of cardiac risk factors in that history” (Specific)
• Balanced
  • Don’t provide only negative comments
• Well timed
  • Frequent
  • Ideally, close to the event but 
    • Ensure privacy for negative comments 
    • Feedback on major issues may need scheduling to allow adequate reflection
• Limited    
  • Pick only one or two topics to comment on.
  • Brief, focused feedback has high impact
• Within the control of the learner (fixable flaws)
  • “Patients cannot understand your accent” is not helpful
  • “If you talk more slowly, patients will be able to understand you more easily” may be useful to the learner

Feedback models

There are numerous models for feedback including the familiar sandwich technique, where a negative comment is made more palatable by packaging it with positives before and after. Both the University of Alberta and the University of Calgary use a 4 - point feedback tool with the Direct Observation sheets.

• Continue
• Do More
• Do Less
• Stop

Here’s another model which may work for you. It also provides some insight into the student’s self assessment capabilities.
Sample: Field note form

You can see the model in action with the accompanying video:

View Giving Feedback Video

• Student comments first, starting with the  positive 
  • “What went well?”
  • “Anything that could have been improved”
• Preceptor comments
  • Echoes appropriate student comments
  • Focuses on the positive
  • Remarks on areas that could be improved
• Finish with a plan for “Next time”

For more about giving feedback visit: Giving feedback

Reference:
Modified from: Teaching Skills for Community Based Preceptors, UBC

Giving Feedback Give frequent brief feedback Feedback should be specific Let the student comment first End with a plan for "Next time"