Perceptions of medical school faculty members and students on clinical clerkship feedback

The authors in this study investigated faculty members' and students' perceptions of the feedback they provided or received, respectively, during the clerkships in all clinical departments at a university hospital. All faculty members who teach students in the clinical years and all third- and fourth-year medical students were surveyed. Respondents were asked to indicate, on a 7-point scale, the importance they attributed to eight feedback categories and to rate the frequency of actual feedback they felt was provided or received in these eight categories. The results indicate that while both faculty members and students perceived six of the eight feedback categories as equally important, they differed substantially in their ratings of the actual feedback provided or received.