Collective verbal feedback as a strategy to elicit faculty feedback
Haya Jamali1, Sara Char2, Josephine Fisher3
1University of Colorado Anschutz, Aurora, Colorado, USA.
Journal of Hospital Medicine
|June 16, 2026
Summary
Collective feedback offers a promising alternative for gathering upward feedback from trainees to faculty in internal medicine residency programs. This method enhances feedback quality and faculty satisfaction compared to traditional evaluations.
Area of Science:
- Medical Education Research
- Faculty Development
- Residency Training
Background:
- Upward feedback is crucial for faculty growth but often yields low-quality results via traditional methods.
- Educators face challenges in obtaining meaningful trainee feedback.
- Collective feedback, a group-based verbal approach, shows potential to improve feedback quality.
Purpose of the Study:
- To implement and evaluate collective feedback within an Internal Medicine residency program.
- To assess resident and faculty perceptions of this novel feedback method.
- To compare collective feedback with traditional online evaluations.
Main Methods:
- Six small group sessions were conducted for 15 core faculty, informed by sociocultural and psychological safety theories.
- Feedback was collated and distributed to faculty.
- Surveys assessed resident and faculty perceptions of collective feedback versus traditional online evaluations.
Main Results:
- High response rates were achieved: 86% of residents and 80% of faculty completed surveys.
- Both faculty and trainees expressed a preference for collective feedback over traditional methods.
- Trainees provided more meaningful feedback confidentially, and faculty received more actionable, specific, and timely feedback.
Conclusions:
- Collective feedback shows promise for collecting upward feedback in internal medicine residency programs with close-knit faculty-trainee cohorts.
- Further research is needed to evaluate its impact on faculty behavior and long-term resident engagement.
- Generalizability to other educational settings warrants investigation.
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