Feedback as a means to improve clinical competencies: consultants' perceptions of the quality of feedback given to registrars

Background. Effective supervision by consultants in postgraduate medical education involves the process of feedback. Giving feedback may be challenging for consultants who have no formal training in this process; which may be further compounded in heterogeneous diverse settings. Objective. To explore consultants' perceptions of feedback to registrars in a multicultural; multilingual diverse academic hospital setting. Methods. Thirty-seven consultants consented to completing a questionnaire on what; when; where; how often; and how feedback was provided; as well as on the type and effect of feedback to registrars. Descriptive statistics were used to analyse the data. Differences between groups were calculated using Pearson's ?2 test for independent variables; with a p-value of 0.05 regarded as being statistically significant. Results. Only 40% of consultants reported that they provided feedback often or always and 62.2% reported that standards were not predetermined and communicated to registrars. When feedback was provided; it was based on concrete observations of performance (78.4%); it incorporated a plan for improvement (72.9%) and it supplied information on techniques performed incorrectly (72.9%). Only 40.5% of consultants provided feedback on procedures performed correctly. Moreover; only half of the consultants believed they were proficient at giving feedback. Conclusion. Consultants need to develop the art of giving feedback through appropriate training so that they are more comfortable and proficient with the various aspects of feedback; leading to a positive effect on enhancing registrar training

Feedback as a means to improve cinical competencies: registrars' perceptions of the quality of feedback provided by consultants in an academic hospital setting

Background. The creating; maintenance and storage of patients' medical records is an important competence for the professional training of a dental student.Objective. Owing to the unsatisfactory state of dental records at the students' clinic; the objective of this study was to obtain information from; undergraduate dental students on the factors that affect this process and elicit recommendations for improvement. Methods. This qualitative cross-sectional study used focus group discussions with 4th- and 5th-year dental students for data collection. Data were captured through a written transcript and an audio recorder. The data were transcribed and analysed manually through developing themes; which were Compared with the literature and interpreted. Results. Three themes emerged: (i) Poorly designed clerking forms. The clerking forms were deemed to have a poor design with inadequate space for clinical notes. It was recommended that they be redesigned. (ii) Inadequate storage space. Space for storing patient records was deemed inadequate and a referencing system for file retrieval was lacking. It was recommended that more space be allocated for storage; with a referencing system for easy file retrieval. (iii) Poor maintenance of records. Patients' records; especially radiographs; were not well labelled and stored. It was recommended that drug envelopes be utilised to store radiographs. An electronic system was deemed the ultimate solution to this problem. Conclusion. The general perception was that the current paper-based record system at the clinic was unsatisfactory. Therefore; there is a need to improve the maintenance and storage of records; and to change to a more efficient electronic system. The students' attitude towards record keeping was found to be questionable; with a need to be addressed as part of teaching and learning in the curriculum. Lecturers were deemed to have a bigger role to play in the record-keeping process