The Culture of Giving Feedback in Health Professional Education: Reflection of Medical Educators on Effective Feedback Behavior

Abstract

Background: Despite the fact that feedback improves learner performance, the feedback culture remains primitive. This paper explores the feedback behavior from a medical educator perspective. Furthermore, we explored the specific areas of improvement and attempts to suggest solutions to develop an effective feedback culture. Methods: The personal experience and opinion of 33 medical educators from 20 medical institutions of India and one each from Nepal and Sudan on feedback were analyzed with mixed quantitative and qualitative methods. The response to an online self-assessment form and the individual narratives during online discussion were analyzed. Finally, their suggestions on way forward to implementation of an effective feedback culture was summarized. Results: On average 78% of the participants reported having followed the action mentioned in the checklist. Vague terms for giving feedback were used by 18 (54.5 %), and only 15 (45.5%) planned for a specific time frame for student’s reassessment. During deductive thematic analysis, the themes “preparation before feedback”, “elicitation of feedback from the learner”, “feedback delivery”, “improvement plan after feedback”, “application of feedback”, and “review of feedback” were expressed. The proposed strategies for the implementation of effective feedback are summarized under the main headings of to whom, what, where, when, and how. Conclusion: Results emphasize that a culture of continuous and effective feedback should be nurtured in medical education by training the faculties to deliver effective feedback and sensitizing the learners to self-reflect and receive the feedback as it is critical to the achievement of the predefined competency.