Twelve tips for developing feedback literacy in health professions learners

Abstract

Despite feedback being widely-used by health professions educators as a tool to develop clinical competencies, strategies to guide its successful implementation remain limited. In addition, health professions learners are often dissatisfied with the quality and/or volume of feedback they receive. Efforts to better engage learners in feedback processes have resulted in the development of a number of theoretical frameworks to guide educators, one being feedback literacy. Feedback literacy can be conceptualised as a learner’s ability to recognise, comprehend, generate, and take action on feedback they encounter during their learning to aid health professions learners’ clinical competency development. Here, we draw on both a conceptual framework of feedback literacy and other contemporary feedback literature to provide 12 practical tips by which feedback literacy can be developed in health professions learners.

Keywords:

• Feedback
• peer
• self-assessment
• education environment
• information handling

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank their respective institutions (The University of Melbourne and Victoria University), and the Australian Institute of Musculoskeletal Science (AIMSS) for their ongoing support.

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

NT and JF are supported by Australian Government Research Training Program Scholarships and would like to acknowledge their support.

Notes on contributors

Nicholas Tripodi

Nicholas Tripodi, BSc, MHlthSc, GradCertTertEd, is a lecturer and researcher at Victoria University, Melbourne, Australia, and a research fellow at the University of Technology Sydney, Australia. His research interests include feedback pedagogy, communication skills, technology-based learning and patient adherence to exercise strategies.

Jack Feehan

Jack Feehan, BSc, MHlthSc, is a translational researcher in geriatric musculoskeletal care at the Australian Institute of Musculoskeletal Science, Western Health and the University of Melbourne, and a research fellow at the University of Technology Sydney, Australia. He also lectures in the biomedical and health professions disciplines at Victoria University, Melbourne, Australia.

Rebecca Wospil

Rebecca Wospil, BSc, MHlthSc, GradCertTertEd, is a lecturer and researcher at Victoria University, Melbourne, Australia. Her research interests are in the qualitative analysis of learner's perceptions of technology-enhanced learning and innovative teaching methods.

Brett Vaughan

Brett Vaughan, BSc, MHlthSc, GradCertTertEd, is a lecturer in clinical education in the Melbourne Medical School, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia and a Professional Fellow in the School of Health & Human Sciences, Southern Cross University, Lismore, Australia. His interests include assessment and evaluation in the clinical learning environment and faculty development.