Enhancing Feedback On Case Reports To Third Year Medical Students On Clinical Attachment.

Area of Science:

• Medical Education
• Clinical Practice Assessment

Background:

• Case reports in student attachments offer real-world clinical insights but lack standardization for assessment.
• Traditional feedback methods in medical training can be inconsistent and insufficient.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the impact of a new formative case report system on feedback occurrence and quality.
• To compare feedback practices between a new system and previous methods in third-year clinical attachments.

Main Methods:

• Employed quantitative and qualitative methods to analyze feedback in medical student attachments.
• Compared questionnaire responses and qualitative data from students under the new system versus the old.

Main Results:

• The new system resulted in more frequent and earlier feedback, often delivered verbally in meetings.
• Students rated the quality of feedback higher under the new system, despite some inconsistencies.
• No significant difference was observed in students' self-reported confidence in patient assessment skills.

Conclusions:

• A simple intervention significantly altered feedback practices and attitudes in medical education.
• While feedback quality improved, the impact on students' clinical skills remains undetermined.
• Further research is needed to ascertain if the enhanced feedback translates to improved clinical competencies.