Qualitative Analysis of Feedback From a Primary Care Resident Clinic

Background Residents spend a great deal of time with supervising faculty in their continuity clinic in primary care residencies. The long-term relationship between the resident and faculty provides an opportunity to provide feedback on the resident’s knowledge, skills, and practice style. Materials and methods Focus group discussions with primary care residency supervising faculty at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center were analyzed to determine the goals, current knowledge, feelings, and barriers regarding providing feedback to residents during continuity clinic. Qualitative analysis using grounded theory identified themes in the focus group data, leading to an underlying theory of feedback provision to residents in a primary care resident clinic. Data were used to propose improvements to the current feedback process. Results Categories in the data included the longitudinal nature of the faculty-resident relationship, the need to manage emotional responses to feedback, faculty preparedness, and the difficulty of determining the content of the feedback to be provided. These influenced the three significant components of feedback: content, delivery, and reception. Conclusions Addressing components of feedback content, delivery, and the learner's attitude or receptivity can improve the quality and quantity of feedback given to residents in the clinic.