Twelve tips for creating and sustaining a peer assessment program of clinical faculty

Abstract

While feedback is essential for learning in the health professions, clinical teachers rarely get feedback on their teaching, and the existing feedback is often non-specific and distant from teaching encounters. To enhance clinical teaching, we created a peer assessment program for clinical faculty. This program has been well-received and sustained for five years despite the challenges of faculty turnover and the pandemic. In this article, we identify twelve tips for creating and sustaining a peer assessment program for clinical faculty based on this experience. These tips focus on how to create a culture that supports peer assessment, on how best to implement a peer assessment program in practical terms, and on how to sustain a peer assessment program long-term. We hope these tips help educators receive better feedback about their clinical teaching and improve the future care delivered by our learners.

Keywords:

• Peer observation
• clinical teaching
• feedback
• medical education
• faculty development

Disclosure statement

The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the article.

Additional information

Funding

The authors reported there is no funding associated with the work featured in this article.

Notes on contributors

Kimberly Pedram

Kimberly Pedram, MD, is an academic hospitalist and co-director of the Practice of Clinical Medicine course at Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA.

Carolyn Marcelo

Carolyn Marcelo, MD, is an academic hospitalist and the Quality and Safety Director for the General Medicine Housestaff Services at Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA.

Laura Paletta-Hobbs

Laura Paletta-Hobbs, MD, is an academic hospitalist and an associate program director for the Internal Medicine Residency program at Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, Virginia.

Evan Meadors

Evan Meadors, MD, is an academic hospitalist at Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA.

Alan Dow

Alan Dow, MD, MSHA, is the Ruth and Seymour Perlin Tenured Professor of Medicine and Health Administration at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, VA. He directs the Center for Interprofessional Education and Collaborative Care and is the President and CEO of UHS-PEP, his institution’s continuing education enterprise. He currently serves as the interim division chief for Hospital Medicine at Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA.