Coaching medical students in receiving effective feedback

Background: Little attention has been given to fostering students' active participation in obtaining feedback. Description: To improve the skills of medical students receiving feedback from residents and attending physicians (APs), we developed a 2-hr workshop utilizing multiple educational methods (e.g., videotape review, role playing). The workshop focused on writing goals in a learning contract, defining effective characteristics of feedback, and practicing the use of feedback in response to feedback received from residents and APs. Evaluation: A quasi-experimental approach evaluated the difference between an experimental group of internal medicine clerkship students and a control group at separate institutions. Visual analog scabs (VAS) assessed students' perceptions of feedback. The experimental group had more positive VAS scores after the intervention. Conclusions: Our workshop as described may be an innovative method to improve the feedback students receive. Such coaching appears to improve students' perception of their feedback skills and the subsequent information they receive. Copyright (C) 1998 by Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc.