Es. Homboe et al., Effectiveness of a focused educational intervention on resident evaluations from faculty - A randomized controlled trial, J GEN INT M, 16(7), 2001, pp. 427-434
OBJECTIVE: To improve the quality and specificity of written evaluations by
faculty attendings of Internal medicine residents during inpatient rotatio
ns.
DESIGN. Prospective randomized controlled trial.
SETTING: Four hospitals: tertiary care university hospital, Veterans' Admin
istration hospital, and two community hospitals.
PARTICIPANTS: Eighty-eight faculty and 157 residents from categorical and p
rimary-care Internal medicine residency training programs rotating on Inpat
ient general medicine teams.
INTERVENTION: Focused 20-minute educational session on evaluation and feedb
ack, accompanied by 3 by 5 reminder card and diary, given to faculty at the
start of their attending month.
MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS: Primary outcomes: 1) number of written comme
nts from faculty specific to unique, preselected dimensions of competence;
2) number of written comments from faculty describing a specific resident b
ehavior or providing a recommendation; and 3) resident Likert-scale ratings
of the quantity and effect of feedback received from faculty. Faculty in t
he intervention group provided more written comments specific to defined di
mensions of competence, a median of three comments per evaluation form vers
us two in the control group, but when adjusted for clustering by faculty, t
he difference was not statistically significant (P = .09). Regarding feedba
ck, residents In the intervention group rated the quantity significantly hi
gher (P = .04) and were significantly more likely to make changes in clinic
al management of patients than residents in the control group (P = .04).
CONCLUSIONS: A brief, focused educational intervention delivered to faculty
prior to the start of a ward rotation appears to have a modest effect on f
aculty behavior for written evaluations and promoted higher quality feedbac
k given to housestaff.