‘Team observation’: a six-year study of the development and use of multi-source feedback (360-degree assessment) in obstetrics and gynaecology training in the UK

Abstract

Multi-source feedback, or 360-degree assessment, is an important part of the assessment of people in the workplace, in both health and industry. Almost all published work concentrates on content validity and generalizability. However, an assessment system needs construct validity, and has to have practicability and acceptability, without sacrificing fitness for purpose, content validity or inter-rater reliability. This was a six-year study of the first UK-wide hospital-based multi-source feedback system, in the specialty of obstetrics and gynaecology. This paper describes the development of the assessment tool, its use and the analyses of the results in several areas. These are picking up poor performance, congratulating good behaviour, construct validity, the number of domains to be measured, and the minimum number of raters. The study demonstrated that the Team Observation system in reality only measured a very limited number of attributes, and that the main construct under scrutiny is interpersonal behaviour. The system can identify those who may have a problem, using less than 10 raters, and yet the process can be a positive experience for the large majority of people who have been assessed.

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Additional information

Notes on contributors

Laurence Wood

LAURENCE WOOD is an associate postgraduate dean for education in the West Midlands Deanery and a consultant in obstetrics and gynaecology at University Hospital Coventry and Warwickshire in Coventry.

David Wall

DAVID WALL is a deputy regional postgraduate dean in the West Midlands Deanery and professor of medical education at Staffordshire University.

Alison Bullock

ALISON BULLOCK is Reader in Medical and Dental Education in the School of Education at the University of Birmingham and a senior member of the Centre for Research in Medical and Dental Education in the School of Education.

Andrew Hassell

ANDY HASSELL is an associate postgraduate dean for education in the West Midlands Deanery and a consultant in rheumatology at the University Hospital of North Staffordshire in Stoke on Trent.

Andrew Whitehouse

ANDREW WHITEHOUSE is a director of hospital and specialist education in the West Midlands Deanery, and consultant physician at George Eliot Hospital in Nuneaton, Warwickshire.

Ian Campbell

IAN CAMPBELL is a statistician. He qualified as a doctor but now works as a medical statistician on a number of different projects.