From Vague Comments to Actionable Feedback: Improving End-of-Rotation Written Evaluations of Learners

Course Overview

Is your program looking to improve end-of-rotation evaluations for optimal assessment of learner performance? Do you want to improve end-of-rotation evaluation completion rates?

End-of-rotation written evaluations of residents and students by faculty are extremely valuable, both for providing direct feedback to the trainee and for helping program leadership make summative assessments of trainees. However, faculty working with trainees cite many barriers in writing high-quality written evaluations, including time, uncertainty regarding how to write effective feedback, and discomfort with giving "negative" feedback.

In this seminar, we deconstruct the process of writing end-of rotation evaluations and introduce an approach to ensure high quality, contextualized, and actionable written feedback. The step-wise approach includes: (1) taking notes on observations of trainees, (2) identifying behaviors that are reflective of overall competency, and (3) formulating written feedback based on these behaviors. We will introduce a "who/what/when/where/how" framework for observing trainees and specifically how to formulate these observations into high-quality written evaluations. We will also address barriers and best practices regarding timely completion of written end-of-rotation evaluations. Participants will practice the approach learned during the seminar through two video case scenarios of trainees. They will discuss and identify salient behaviors in small groups and then practice writing high-quality narrative evaluations using the provided approach and framework.

By the end of the seminar, participants will have an effective and efficient method for writing high-quality written evaluations. These improved, actionable written evaluations will provide better direct feedback to residents as well as program and clerkship leadership.

Learning Objectives

To implement the "who/what/when/where/how" framework in observing trainees for behaviors that are reflective of overall competency
To formulate high quality, contextualized, and actionable end-of-rotation written feedback based on these observed behaviors
To identify best practices and tips on how to complete end-of-rotation feedback in a timely manner

Speakers

Dheepa R. Sekar MD
University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine

Andrea Carter MD
University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine

Anita Ganti MD
University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine

Milad Memari MD
University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine

Additional Information

Year Published: 2022 - AIMW