A novel Minute Feedback System for medical students

Area of Science:

• Medical Education
• Surgical Training
• Health Professions Education

Background:

• Medical students frequently report insufficient timely and useful feedback during clerkship rotations.
• This gap in feedback can impact learning and professional development during critical training periods.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and evaluate a novel Minute Feedback System for delivering frequent, high-quality, documented feedback to third-year medical students during their surgery clerkship.

Main Methods:

• The Minute Feedback System was developed using Qualtrics survey software.
• The system was piloted with surgery clerkship students, who were surveyed on feedback frequency and quality, and compared to a control group.
• The system was subsequently implemented for all M3 surgery clerkship students, with data collected on feedback generation and student ratings.

Main Results:

• The pilot phase involving 6 students generated 70 unique feedback comments, with pilot students rating feedback frequency (4.50 vs 2.83) and quality (4.70 vs 3.33) significantly higher than the control group.
• Full implementation yielded 354 unique feedback comments from 399 student requests (89% response rate).
• Students using the system reported higher quality feedback (3.76 vs 3.4) and increased feedback provision during clerkship (100% vs 90%) compared to the previous year.

Conclusions:

• The Minute Feedback System effectively provides medical students with frequent, timely, useful, and documented feedback.
• This novel system has the potential to enhance the educational experience and feedback mechanisms in medical clerkships.