Delivery of Effective Feedback in Surgical Education: A Goal of Best Practices in Faculty Development Platforms

Summary: Delivering feedback to learners in undergraduate and graduate medical education programs is an important skill for faculty to acquire and contribute to these settings. Unfortunately, these conversations remain a challenge in the clinical learning environment. This dilemma is inclusive to the academic surgery setting. Effective feedback is that which is delivered in a timely and non-judgmental fashion to narrow the gap between intended and observed outcomes in patient care. The absence of feedback may be associated with ineffectual procedural learning, substandard patient care, and unacceptable preparation for the independent practice of surgery. It is the purpose of this surgical viewpoint to define effective feedback and review its variants, strategies, and challenges in implementation in surgery education, while describing feedback constructs available for faculty development platforms in surgery programs. The goal of these feedback constructs is the establishment of a culture of feedback where academic surgeons and trainees mutually benefit from the experience.