How do we make feedback meaningful?

As a junior doctor, there’s no escape from feedback.

Multiscore feedback at least once a year (twice in Scotland) from other doctors, nurses, ward staff, and medical students provides commentary on a junior’s competence, professional approach, and teamworking. One negative comment triggers a further round of feedback. Workplace based assessments to appraise clinical reasoning, practical skills, and patient interaction are signed off by senior clinicians. Educational supervisors then give feedback on this feedback, but only after trainees complete feedback about their own performance.

Juniors give even more feedback than they receive: for colleagues’ e-portfolios and appraisals, weekly teaching sessions, satisfaction ratings for conferences, the four monthly NHS training survey, and annual GMC survey. What might be constructive dialogue can stray into ransom. Receiving a continuing professional development certificate after an educational event is conditional on submitting feedback. The NHS’s untested …