Resident identification of feedback and teaching on rounds

Area of Science:

• Medical Education
• Clinical Practice
• Healthcare Professional Development

Background:

• Feedback is crucial for resident learning in teaching hospitals.
• Residents frequently report receiving inadequate feedback.
• The overlap between teaching and feedback may hinder identification.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate internal medicine residents' ability to differentiate between teaching and feedback in clinical scenarios.
• To explore how the combination of teaching and feedback affects residents' identification accuracy.

Main Methods:

• A national survey was distributed to internal medicine residents.
• The survey included seven scenarios: two with teaching, two with feedback, and three with combined teaching and feedback.
• Data were collected from 392 residents across 17 programs between October 2017 and April 2018.

Main Results:

• Residents correctly identified feedback scenarios 89% of the time and teaching scenarios 64% of the time.
• Accuracy in identifying combined teaching and feedback scenarios was significantly lower at 38%.
• Interns were less accurate than upper-level residents in identifying combined scenarios (P=0.005).

Conclusions:

• Residents experience difficulty distinguishing feedback when it is presented within a teaching context.
• This confusion likely contributes to the perception of receiving insufficient feedback.
• Interventions may be needed to improve feedback identification skills in residency programs.