Role of Feedback during Evaluation in Improving Emergency Medicine Residents’ Skills; an Experimental Study

INTRODUCTION Evaluation of students' learning in clinical education system is one of the most important and challenging issues that facilities in this field have been facing. The present study aimed to evaluate the role of feedback during evaluation in increasing emergency medicine residents' clinical skills. METHOD The present experimental study was performed on all second year emergency medicine residents of two educational hospitals, Tehran, Iran, with switching replications design and before-after method. They were randomly allocated to two groups (with or without feedback) and evaluated three times regarding chest ultrasonography for trauma patients, using direct observation of procedural skills (DOPS) and valid and reliable checklist. Data were analyzed using SPSS 20. RESULTS 30 emergency medicine residents with the mean age of 36.63 ± 30.30 years were allocated to two equal groups (56.7% male). Studied groups were similar regarding the baseline characteristics. In both groups, obtained scores showed a significant increase from the first to the third evaluation (p < 0.001). Mean scores of first and second evaluations were 10.24 ± 0.77, 17.73 ± 0.46 in feedback receivers and 9.73 ± 0.77 and 12.13 ± 0.47 in others (p < 0.001). Mean third score after switching groups were 18.53 ± 0.22 in feedback receivers and 18.99 ± 0.22 in others (p = 0.213). CONCLUSION Based on the findings of the present study, giving feedback after evaluating the second year emergency medicine residents regarding chest ultrasonography for trauma patients, led to a significant improvement in their scores in future evaluations and consequently their skill.