Resident ratings of surgical faculty. Improved teaching effectiveness through feedback

This study was designed to test the effect on teaching effectiveness of providing regular feedback to the faculty of a general surgery residency. A faculty evaluation rating scale was developed as one aspect of an overall "Code of Teaching Responsibility" process. This study compares two cohorts of surgery teaching staff--one during 1980 and the other during 1982 with respect to resident ratings of teaching effectiveness. Thirty-nine identical surgical faculty were in each cohort--19 general surgeons and 20 subspecialty surgeons. The results show that those faculty receiving the lowest ratings in 1980 show the greatest significant improvement in ratings in 1982--even after a statistical artifact was eliminated. Those in the middle range of ratings in 1980 did not change significantly in 1982. The highest rated faculty in 1980 showed a slight decrease in 1982 ratings. There was no difference between mean ratings of general and subspecialty surgeons. These results suggest that negative feedback to surgical residency faculty who are performing least effectively has a more powerful impact than does positive feedback to those teaching staff who are performing satisfactorily.