Design and Implementation of a Face-to-Face Peer Feedback Program for Ambulatory Nursing

Area of Science:

• Nursing Education
• Healthcare Quality Improvement
• Professional Development

Background:

• Anonymous peer feedback often leads to dissatisfaction among healthcare professionals.
• Effective peer feedback is crucial for team building and performance enhancement in nursing.
• A lack of structured training programs for nurses in providing and receiving face-to-face feedback was identified.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and implement a program to equip nurses with skills for respectful and meaningful face-to-face peer feedback.
• To address the identified gap in training for effective peer review processes in nursing.

Main Methods:

• A quality improvement project was conducted over two years with two nurse cohorts.
• Online surveys were used for data collection at three time points.
• Key strategies included education on providing feedback with positive intent and the implementation of a facilitator role to ensure effective communication and support.

Main Results:

• Participants reported increased comfort and knowledge in providing and receiving face-to-face feedback.
• Seventy-five percent of nurses felt comfortable giving feedback, while 80-92% reported increased comfort in receiving it.
• The training and facilitator support were instrumental in improving participants' confidence and skills.

Conclusions:

• Active peer-to-peer support, facilitated through structured training, is an effective approach to enhance face-to-face peer feedback.
• This methodology has become an accepted standard within the annual review process for nurses.
• The project successfully improved the quality and reception of peer feedback in a nursing context.