Formalizing Feedback: Introducing a Structured Approach in an Outpatient Resident Clinic

Delivering feedback is an integral part of graduate medical education. This paper will present how feedback research informed the development of a new feedback model and discuss its implementation and evaluation by residents in an outpatient psychiatry clinic.

After reviewing research, a new feedback model of self-determined goal setting with guided objectives and quarterly formal in-person feedback sessions was implemented with 10 psychiatry residents during their 12-month outpatient experience in postgraduate year (PGY)-3. Residents received a pre-intervention survey to assess existing opinions of feedback and goal setting and a post-intervention survey to evaluate experiences with the new feedback model.

On the pre-intervention survey, 3 of 8 resident respondents indicated they had previously set goals, and only 4 of 8 predicted goal setting would be helpful, with average helpfulness rating of 3.62 (scale of 1 to 5). Cumulatively, 10 PGY-3 residents set 31 goals over the academic year. On the post-intervention survey, resident respondents rated the helpfulness of goal setting at 4.71 and quarterly, formal, in-person feedback meetings at 4.86. Success at reaching their self-determined goals was rated at 5 by all respondents.

Utilizing self-determined goals and formal in-person feedback sessions seemed to provide the framework for an effective feedback model in an outpatient resident clinic. This pilot project suggests that introducing formal feedback models can have a positive impact on resident clinical and educational growth. The data support expanding the model to assess its generalizability with the goal of furthering development of evidence-based feedback models.