Residency Faculty Teaching Evaluation: What Do Faculty, Residents, and Program Directors Want?

Area of Science:

• Medical Education
• Graduate Medical Education
• Faculty Development

Background:

• Residency programs require annual faculty performance evaluations.
• Medical education culture presents challenges to effective feedback systems.
• Stakeholder perspectives on faculty teaching evaluation systems are explored.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate current and ideal characteristics of faculty teaching evaluation systems.
• To gather insights from faculty, residents, and program directors.
• To identify barriers and facilitators for effective feedback in residency programs.

Main Methods:

• Qualitative study using confidential semistructured telephone interviews with program directors.
• Anonymous online surveys administered to faculty and residents.
• Inductive thematic analysis applied to interview and survey data from eight family medicine residency programs.

Main Results:

• Faculty and program directors desire actionable, real-time, frequent feedback for professional development.
• Faculty seek accessible, peer-based feedback.
• Residents prefer in-person feedback, minimized retribution, and clear skill-based evaluation criteria.

Conclusions:

• A shared desire exists among program directors, faculty, and residents for meaningful, specific, real-time feedback.
• Residency programs should foster a culture where feedback is integral to learning for both residents and faculty.