Pilot study on interprofessional feedback in postgraduate pediatric education

Postgraduate medical education focuses on medical knowledge as well as on other competencies, such as communication skills, work organization and teamwork. Multidimensional competency-based education requires interprofessionalism, namely the cooperation of physicians and nurses, which is practically but not formally included in the postgraduate medical education and assessment. This study analyzed to what extent workplace-based feedback by registered nurses is accepted and valued by residents. Furthermore, the similarities and differences in the assessment of residents' competencies by attending physicians and registered nurses were analyzed. Residents in pediatrics were observed simultaneously by attending physicians and registered nurses in 20 counseling encounters with parents. Both groups independently documented their observations according to defined criteria on a visual analogue scale (VAS) and with free text comments. The residents received an oral feedback by both physicians and nurses in separate sessions and rated the feedback using a VAS. The metric data of the VAS were analyzed by the t-test for paired samples. Free text comments were categorized according to their content and the relationship to the variables estimated by log-linear analysis. The residents' competencies were rated by both groups nearly identically. Both physicians and nurses made positive free text comments significantly more often than critical ones (p < 0.001). Nurses commented more often on the residents' communication skills, whereas physicians did so on their clinical judgement (p = 0.056). Critical remarks on the residents' clinical judgement were provided by the physicians significantly more often than by the nurses (p = 0.012). The residents rated the feedback by the nurses as more pleasant (p = 0.003) and also more useful (p = 0.08) than that by the physicians. The interprofessional workplace-based feedback was highly valued by the residents. The method proved to be feasible and possible role conflicts did not occur. The interprofessional feedback provided by physicians and nurses was not contrary between the two professional groups but complementary. Thus, it may be helpful for the competency-based postgraduate education in pediatrics.