Advances in Medical Education and Practice (Mar 2017)
The importance of feedback for medical students’ development
Abstract
Rahul Rajesh Amin, Rohin Patel, Prashant Bamania Faculty of Medicine, Imperial College London, Kensington, London, United KingdomWe read with great interest the study by McKenzie et al,1 which explores the impact of providing feedback to students on their ability to carry out a clinical procedure. This study was particularly interesting to us as fifth-year medical students at Imperial College London who have learnt several clinical skills during rotations. A noteworthy finding was that education involving providing feedback to students had a positive impact on their performance.1 Furthermore, the recommendation that clinical skills training be accompanied with feedback resonated strongly with us.Authors’ replySusan McKenzie1 Annette Burgess2 Craig Mellis11Central Clinical School, 2Education Office, Sydney Medical School, The University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia Thank you for the opportunity to respond to the letter by Dr Amin and colleagues. We wish to thank Dr Amin and colleagues for their interest in our recent article1 and have found their feedback encouraging for our work. We find the use of electronic feedback to be of particular interest as we are currently developing a similar electronic application for the use of students’ “smart phones”. We anticipate by capturing feedback in this manner, students have a great opportunity to reflect on their procedural skills performance, and to be able to improve their skills when necessary.View the original paper by McKenzie and colleagues.
