Abstract Details

Supervising attending physicians play a dynamic role in training residents by providing direct observation and feedback. It is a valuable part of neurology residency training. Unfortunately, feedback is prone to subjectivity and has variable frequency and utility, though has the potential to provide a foundation for growth and promote awareness of strengths and weaknesses. Solutions for  addressing such issues are lacking. We conducted a feedback quality assessment and provided an intervention tool, Feedback Friday, to improve feedback on clinical assessment and communication skills.

An anonymous assessment survey was filled by 14 out of 18 neurology residents at LAC+USC Medical Center in 2020. The survey contained questions regarding quality, frequency, and impressions on attending-resident feedback, and answers were recorded in a Likert-scale from 1 (not at all) to 5 (almost always). A weekly ‘Feedback Friday’ reminder card was emailed to attending physicians to give feedback on Friday afternoons, with instructions to address clinical skills, medical knowledge, verbal and written communication for an 8-week period. A post-intervention survey recorded 14 responses. A Mann-Whitney-U-test was used to analyze the survey results with 95% significance level of one-tail hypothesis.

Pre-intervention surveys showed that residents felt feedback frequency was insufficient, and that face-to-face feedback was most often more meaningful. Commonly addressed topics were strengths, weaknesses, ability to formulate assessments, and localizing lesions. Documentation and physical examination skills were rarely discussed. Post-intervention surveys showed that residents received more direct face-to-face feedback by 50%, felt more valued (p<0.0001), more satisfied with in-person and written feedback (p=0.006), and felt feedback was less variable across supervising physicians (p=0.003).