gms | German Medical Science

Background: Internship in general practice is based on a close relationship between GP-(general practitioner) teacher and student. In every day practice formative feedback is the most essential part in the teaching environment. To meet a need of GP-teachers to improve on their feedback skills, the department of General Practice and Health’s Services Research at the University of Heidelberg established a feedback training program with standardized students and patients.

Method: The changes in the participant’s feedback skills were measured by a pre-post questionnaire covering familiarity of feedback, self-confidence in realizing feedback, preparation for discussions with undergraduate students and improvement of communicative skills.

Results: On a 1 to 6 Likert-scale the participants showed a significant increase in the familiarity of formative feedback (mean 3,75 vs. 2,0, p<0.001), the preparation for discussions with undergraduate students (mean 3,43 vs. 1,62, p<0.001) and an improvement of communication skills (mean 2,50 vs. 1,88, p<0.028 ). The self-confidence in giving formative feedback showed an increase by trend (mean 3,86 vs. 2,93, p<0.75).

Conclusions: The results of this study demonstrate the usefulness of feedback training programs with standardized students to improve the formative feedback skills of GP-teachers. It should be considered to implement such a feedback training program in faculty development to qualify our medical teachers and thereby hold and raise the standard in medical education.