Objective: The objective was to review and critically appraise the medical education literature pertaining to feedback and highlight influential papers that inform our current understanding of the role of feedback in medical education.Methods: A search of the English language literature in querying Education Resources Information Center (ERIC), PsychINFO, PubMed, and Scopus identified 327 feedback-related papers using either quantitative (hypothesis-testing or observational investigations of educational interventions), qualitative methods (exploring important phenomena in emergency medicine [EM] education), or review methods.Two reviewers independently screened each category of publications using previously established exclusion criteria. Six reviewers then independently scored the remaining 54 publications using a qualitative, quantitative, or review paper scoring system. Each scoring system consisted of nine criteria and used parallel scoring metrics that have been previously used in critical appraisals of education research.Results: Fifty-four feedback papers (25 quantitative studies, 24 qualitative studies, five review papers) met the a priori criteria for inclusion and were reviewed. Eight quantitative studies, nine qualitative studies, and three review papers were ranked highly by the reviewers and are summarized in this article. To promote a scholarly approach to education and provide ongoing professional development for EM educators, the CORD Academy proposed a critical appraisal series to explore important, timely, relevant education topics. This inaugural installment of the CORD Academy critical appraisal series addresses the topic of feedback in medical education. Despite widespread acknowledgement of the importance of feedback in improving learner performance, both learners and educators express dissatisfaction with the quality and quantity of feedback received in the ED, and recent literature suggests that even if feedback is delivered, factors related to learner confidence, emotion, learner-educator relationship, and culture may impact the likelihood that the feedback is received, incorporated, and translated into performance improvement. [8][9][10][11][12][13] This critical appraisal applies a previously published method to search, critically appraise, and summarize the top quantitative and qualitative papers on feedback in medical education.
Conclusions14 Established scoring instruments for quantitative and qualitative papers were piloted and revised as necessary for implementation in this context, and an instrument for scoring review papers was adapted from the qualitative instrument, piloted, and revised as well. The aim of this critical appraisal is to provide a summary of the top scoring feedback in medical education papers, highlight practical implications for EM educators, and suggest important next steps for future research.
METHODS Article IdentificationA research librarian performed the literature search, querying Education Resources Information Center (ERIC), PsychINFO, PubMed, ...