Orthodontic Trainees' Perceptions of Effective Feedback in the United Kingdom

Feedback is an invaluable educational tool and is now widely used in education, despite some of the challenges and barriers to its implementation. Effective feedback in medical and dental education is a driver for improvement, by recognising good performance and identifying areas where improvement is required. This, in turn, can translate into better patient care, as feedback can positively impact on clinical performance. To date, there is limited literature about feedback mechanisms in orthodontic training and trainees' perceptions of how effective the various methods are.

This was a national, cross-sectional questionnaire investigating orthodontic trainees' perceptions of effective feedback relating to chairside clinical training. An electronic questionnaire was developed and an invitation to participate was disseminated via the British Orthodontic Society (BOS) to postgraduate orthodontic trainees in the United Kingdom (UK). The population included all trainees at ST1-5 level who were BOS members, aged 25 years and above, including those appointed by Health Education England (HEE) and those who were non-HEE appointed. The questionnaire was open for an 11-week period between 10 February 2022 and 28 April 2022.

The questionnaire was completed by 68 participants with a mean age of 30.7 years and the response rate was approximately 30%. Trainees agreed that effective feedback improved their clinical skills and performance (99%) and 82% felt comfortable requesting feedback from their supervisors. The main perceived barrier to obtaining high quality in-depth feedback was perceived time pressures for educators (87%).

This study demonstrated positive findings regarding trainees' perceptions of feedback processes in UK clinical orthodontic training. Perceived barriers to effective feedback included time constraints and the perception that trainers were too busy to provide in-depth feedback.