Improving Faculty Performance in Providing Written Feedback to Learners

Faculty acknowledged the importance of completing resident and student assessments yet demonstrated difficulty in consistently performing this task. The investigators aimed to increase the completion of written assessments by faculty in an academic medical center between the years of 2019 and 2024, with success defined as assessments of 100% of medical student shifts and 50% of resident shifts in the emergency department.

To meet the objective, the investigators established faculty assessment targets in 2020 and implemented annual interventions over 4 years, including incorporation into annual faculty evaluations, use of a tracking dashboard, and integration into the compensation plan. Performance was retrospectively analyzed for the year prior to and the 4 years of interventions.

Faculty completed assessments for 70% of student shifts and 28% of resident shifts in the 2019-20 academic year. Completion rates improved incrementally over the 4 years of successive interventions and reached 99% of student shifts assessed and 76% of resident shifts assessed. Secondarily, the proportion of faculty meeting assessment targets increased over the study period, with 100% completion rising from 16% to 56% and ≥ 50% completion rising from 34% to 81%.

Faculty assessment completion improved substantially after implementation of targets, dashboards, and compensation incentives. These interventions increased both the proportion of learner shifts assessed and the percentage of faculty meeting assessment targets, demonstrating a sustainable strategy to enhance feedback practices in academic medicine.