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- Published on: 12 February 2017
- Published on: 12 February 2017Re: [Verification and feedback for medical students: an observational study during general practice rotations]
Dear Editor,
It was with great pleasure that we read the observational study by Bosner et al [1] which centres on an aspect salient to all medical students: clinical teacher feedback [2][3][4]. A factor highlighted by Lempp et al, found that students were most pleased with teachers who were approachable and provided them with constructive criticism [4].
As undergraduate medical students at the largest centre for healthcare education in Europe [5], we benefit from experiences in varied teaching settings; ranging from one-to-one sessions to class sizes of up to 450 students. Our clinical curriculum places strong emphasis in the primary health care setting - where we have accumulated nearly 300 hours between us in around 40 practices, both in and around London.
Whilst Bosner et al [1] have presented a well-organised and structured study; we challenge some of the intricacies affecting its overall validity and subsequent conclusions, and therefore propose suggestions for improvements. There is an absence of information pertaining to whether the observers (fifth year medical students) were appropriately trained to effectively judge the quality of feedback given by their seniors (clinical teachers). This is then coupled with no mention of any guidelines or reference used as a “benchmark” for this assessment. Both present issues regarding quality assurance - the necessity and impact of which has been highlighted by Lievens [6].
The presence of the ob...
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None declared.