Feedback in Continuing Professional Development: Three Pilot Studies from Vietnam

Introduction: Competency-based medical education prepares learners to achieve expected outcomes at graduation. Unlike undergraduate and postgraduate medical education, the integration of frequent feedback into continuing professional development (CPD) is challenging. Methods: We conducted three prospective pilot studies on giving and receiving feedback to (1) identify and tackle professional practice gaps, (2) enhance deliberate practice and promote self-improvement, and (3) tailor clinical instruction. Three studies were carried out at the University of Medicine and Pharmacy at Ho Chi Minh City (UMP) from 2021 to 2025. Study 1 was a case-based exclusive CPD series. Cases’ topics were selected based on learners’ feedback. Study 2 was a hierarchical hybrid CPD series, where onsite participants received frequent formative feedback from trained faculty. In study 3, we used participants’ narrative self-reflection to guide clinical instruction. Results: The number of feedback responses in the analysis were 150 for Study 1, 100 for Study 2, and 100 for Study 3. In study 1, 80% of suggested topics were covered. The percentage of learners’ absolute satisfaction increased from 65.3% to 80%. In study 2, with direct observation, deliberate practice, and formative feedback, 100% earned CPD certificates. In study 3, clinical guidance was tailored according to self-reflection, with more in-depth analysis for experienced professionals and foundational guidance in a stepwise manner for junior learners. 100% were satisfied with CPD activities. Conclusions: Our study demonstrated efforts to integrate bidirectional feedback in CPD to continuously enhance learners’ support and facilitate homogenous outcome achievement among heterogeneous learners’ backgrounds.