Feedback in incident reporting – more needed

Abstract

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to determine the prevalence of feedback following adverse clinical incident reporting among trainee doctors in obstetrics and gynaecology within the Northwestern Deanery of England.Design/methodology/approachAn anonymous questionnaire was circulated among the Specialist Registrar trainees within the specialty attending a regional teaching session. The questionnaire was analysed.FindingsThere were 50 responses, of those 45 (90 per cent) had been involved in an adverse clinical incident; 44 had submitted an incident form related to the incident. Three had submitted incident forms without being involved in an adverse incident. Most (80 per cent) had submitted an incident form as well as a related statement. Feedback was available to 23 (51 per cent) of those involved in adverse incidents. More of the senior trainees received feedback than the junior ones. A lecture on clinical incident reporting was available to only 35(70 per cent) of the respondents on the hospital induction day at their latest clinical placement.Research limitations/implicationsThis study is limited to adverse clinical incident reporting among the trainees in a single specialty within one deanery in UK; hence the small numbers.Practical implicationsThis study demonstrates the presence of awareness regarding adverse incident reporting among the trainees in a high‐risk specialty. It also shows the suboptimal rate of feedback following adverse incident reporting, which does not encourage a learning environment. It is suggested that a lecture should be dedicated to incident reporting at the junior doctors' induction day programme in every hospital.Originality/valueThis paper highlights the lack of adequate feedback following adverse clinical incident reporting.