1. Beyond the Feedback Sandwich: Fun Tools for Improving Feedback Skills
Add your name, title, and date to this slide.
Begin presentation by asking the following questions (a show of hands):
“How many of you feel that giving feedback is a part of your job in teaching students?”
“How many of you like giving feedback, look forward to it?”
“How many of you feel that you got enough feedback as a medical student or trainee?” “How about in your current job?”
“How many of you have successful strategies to get your housestaff and faculty to give good feedback?”
“Well, today, we’re going to spend some time on talking about effective strategies for giving feedback.”

2. Objectives Describe rationale for giving feedback
Discuss barriers to giving effective feedback
Practice analyzing teaching videos
Describe process of giving effective feedback for lifelong learning – including the incorporation of reflection into the process
[Briefly review objectives with the group.]
Don’t read this slide verbatim. “Here’s what we’re going to do today…”

3. Rationale for Giving Feedback
Without feedback, mistakes go uncorrected, good performance is not reinforced, and clinical competence is achieved empirically or, not at all.
Good feedback promotes the skill of reflection, which is essential for the development of expertise and lifelong learning.
It’s required by the LCME and ACGME.
Rationale for Giving Feedback in Medical Education
“Jack Ende - the “father of feedback” in medical education -wrote this often-referred-to JAMA article on feedback in 1983.”
Classical apprenticeship is simply “see one, do one, teach one” – without much explicit feedback or dialogue between apprentice and teacher.
A little like a violin teacher playing a sonata…. sending you off to a sound proof practice room to play it by yourself…and then sending you off to teach someone else. Clearly “Without feedback, our learners may not know how they are doing, if they are doing well, or if there are elements of their performance that need to be improved so that they can be competent.”
Additionally, we’d like to suggest to you today that…good feedback promotes reflection
Ende J. Feedback in Clinical Medical Education. JAMA 1983;250:
Bing-You RG, Trowbridge RL. Why medical educators may be failing at feedback. JAMA 2009;302:

4. Feedback (Reinforcement or correction) + Explanation
Keeps learner on course to meet goals
No judgment against external standards; no matter where learner is in relation to external standards, feedback is always helpful
Best if given immediately after the performance or at some time soon after, when the learner still has time to demonstrate improvement
If done well, the learner does not feel judged, enhances capacity for reflection, and therefore lifelong professional development
[Review each bullet with group]
It’s not evaluation!

5. Ende Principles of Good Feedback
Aligns the goals of teacher and learner
Is well-timed and expected
Is based on first hand observation
Is regulated in quantity and limited to remediable behavior
Is phrased in descriptive, non-evaluative language
Deals with specific performance
Deals with decisions and actions rather than assumed intentions or interpretations
Read through this list – paraphrased from Ende
Ende J. Feedback in Clinical Medical Education. JAMA 1983;250:

6. What are the biggest challenges to giving good feedback?
Anticipate:
#Skewed towards positive or neutral: easier to give and receive than being “negative”; students want praise; affective component **Millenial Generation**
# Positive feedback often = personal praise…perceived to be judgment about the person rather than the behavior: important to separate the person from the work/behavior
#nonspecific
#may be interpreted by trainee as a trainee’s worth
#difference between what the teacher and learner hear
#lack of preparation by teacher
#learners not comfortable with self-reflection – not a natural or practiced skill
#environment (ED, nurses station) not comfortable or confidential
#no systematic approach
# use of concrete feedback, while desired, may preclude more higher functions like reflection and active engagement of the learner

7. Why are educators failing at feedback?
1) Not learner-centered/without awareness of the learner’s perspective or self-assessment
2) Overpowering of affective reactions to feedback / a failure to separate the behavior and the person (for teacher and/or learner)
3) Unsuccessful feedback teaches learner to fear or avoid feedback in the future
Bing-You RG, Trowbridge RL. Why medical educators may be failing at feedback. JAMA 2009;302:

8. Domains of feedback
Knowledge
Skills
Attitude
Professionalism

9. “Sleeping” Video: Part 1
Take notes on what you observe:
What did the residents think of the student?
What feedback was delivered?
How did the student respond?
Discuss with your partner
Now we’d like to show you an example of what has traditionally passed as feedback, on the part of the housestaff, to our patients on inpatient clerkships. While you’re watching, please take notes on what you observe. We’d like you to take particular attention to what the residents think of the student; to what kind of feedback was delivered; and how did the student respond
Anticipate
#judgmental
#making assumptions
#judgements and impressions were more about the person than the behavior
#feedback is based on direct observation (that’s good)
#no use of meta-cognition
#affective component of this process can be difficult
#summative, rather than formative “no no…you’re good”
AT OUT INSTITUION, RESIDENTS REPORT:
#Student experience strongly dependent on team dynamics: being part of the team or feeling excluded
#Best/worst experiences related to preparing and performing presentations or bedside skills
#Corrective feedback least well executed and most difficult

10. VIDEO Watch: Sleep_1_bad video: (3:19)
Click “Alt+Tab” to move from PPT to video.
Click “Alt+Tab” to tab back to the PPT. Click “Resume Slideshow”
Discuss your observations with a partner.

11. “Sleeping” Video: Part 2
Here are the same residents after additional training
What was done differently?
Do you detect a different structure to the feedback?
How did the student respond?
Discuss with your partner

12. VIDEO
Deals with decisions and actions rather than intentions or interpretations
Aligns goals of teacher and learner
Well timed and expected
Based on observation
Regulated in quantity and limited to remedial behavior
Uses descriptive rather than evaluative language
Deals with specific performance

13. What more could the resident have done?
Make explicit what was learned:
“This is an important opportunity to learn how to balance your personal and professional lives. When something in your personal life starts to impact your professional performance, you need to tell colleagues and ask for help in handling the situation and/or ensuring your professional obligations to others are fulfilled.”

14. Professionalism Expected More advanced Responsible and reliable
Industrious and dedicated
Enthusiastic and motivated
Appropriately respectful and empathic
Honest and trustworthy
More advanced
Self directed: takes responsibility for learning and behavior
Actions based on accurate understanding of perspectives and needs of others: including patients, team
Overcomes performance preoccupation to focus on patients and learning

15. The Old Feedback Sandwich
Praise
Criticism
This image represents old the paradigm of giving feedback. Students can anticipate the criticism after you praise. Some students will only hear the praise while others will only focus on the criticism.
“The problem here is that it really becomes junk food.” Is appealing at first glance, but is it really more palatable? Is that what you really want?
“Our learners are not involved in this sandwich delivery , we’re treating them like a non-thinking entity.”

16. The New Feedback Sandwich*
Ask
Tell
“An alternative is a different sandwich the origins of which lies in the patient/physician communication-skills literature - ask-tell-ask is a model for giving patient information.”
“This feedback sandwich is easier to swallow—and better for you—because it involves a dialogue between patient and doctor—as well as between teacher and learner.”
*Lyuba Konopasek, MD; in prep for publication

17. Ask Ask learner to assess own performance first
Begins a conversation – an interactive process
Assesses learner’s level of insight and stage of learning
Less threatening: separating behavior from “self”
Promotes reflective practice
[Briefly review the “ask” portion of the approach with group.]
This step of ASK allows the teacher to learn how much the learner may feel is “at stake” in this feedback session.

18. Tell Tell what you observed: diagnosis and explanation
React to the learner’s observation
Feedback on self-assessment
Include both positive and corrective elements
“I observed….”
Give reasons in the context of well-defined shared goals
[Briefly review the “tell’ portion.]
If using subjective feedback, use the “I” statement: “I noticed on rounds that you seemed nervous or uncomfortable…”
? Ende: “Generalizations, such as references to a trainee’s organizational ability, efficiency, or diligence, rarely convey useful information and are far too broad to be helpful as feedback”.

19. Ask (again)
Ask about recipients understanding and strategies for improvement
What could you do differently?
Give own suggestions
Commit to monitoring improvement together
[Briefly review the 2nd “ask” portion.]

20. Limit the Quantity
“It is important to limit the amount of information given in the ask-tell-ask feedback approach. If too much information is given, the learner is apt to forget or be confused about the most important message(s).

21. BEFORE Giving Feedback: Prepare Effectively
Set a time – major feedback should not take student by surprise
Plan what you will say
Make sure that you have enough information
If feedback is second hand, try to obtain specific, documented behaviorally based information
“To make a sandwich, you need to plan ahead.” [Review ways of preparing to give feedback before the actual interaction takes place.]
Consider: what stage is this learner at?
Set a time – major feedback should not take student by surprise
Plan what you will say
Play out the conversation in your head
At what stage is this learner?
What is at stake for this learner?
Are you separating the person from the behavior?
Make sure that you have enough information
Is it specific enough, or is it just gestalt?
Think about who else you need to collect information from
If feedback is second hand, try to obtain specific, documented behaviorally based information

22. AFTER Giving Feedback: Reflect on How it Went
What was effective?
What could be done differently?
Were you well prepared?
Future strategies
Do you need to document?
Do you need help?
[Explain that after one gives feedback to learners in actual situations, it is also a good idea for the feedback giver to reflect on how the interaction went. Here are some areas to help guide this reflection.]

23. Benefits of Ask-Tell-Ask
Learner centered incorporating the learner’s perspective
Active and interactive
Avoids assumptions or judgment
Reflection may make it easier to separate the behavior from the person
Promotes lifelong skill of reflection
These are basic communication skills and allows us to “put the diagnosis before the treatment”
This is a skill set that should seem familiar to all of us: very similar to the approach in a patietn encounter
We think that this approach respects the potentially fragile ego of a typical 3rd year student, and delivers hard-to-hear feedback in a less threatening manner.
Branch J, Paranjape A. Feedback and Reflection: Teaching Methods for Clinical Settings. Academic Medicine. 2002;77:

24. End with Ende
“The important things to remember about feedback in medical education are that (1) it is necessary, (2) it is valuable, and (3) after a bit of practice and planning, it is not as difficult as one might think.”
--Jack Ende, MD
[Review slide to end the session.]
Ende J. Feedback in Clinical Medical Education. JAMA 1983;250:

25. Acknowledgements Funding:
Glenda Garvey Teaching Academy, Columbia University
Actors:
Maya Castillo
Thomas Hooven
Benjamin Kennedy
Daniel Vo
Lyuba Konopasek, MD
Andrew Mutnick, MD
John Encandela, PhD
Gingi Pica, MPH
Center for New Media and Technology:
Michelle Hall, BS