Feedback practices in clinical placement: how students come to understand how they are progressing

Abstract

Health clinicians are required to make use of feedback to form effective judgements and deliver efficacious health care. In health education, clinical placements provide an opportunity for students to translate knowledge to practise and develop expertise. During placements students are expected to engage with and act on feedback in order to improve and demonstrate competence. Increasingly, in the assessment literature, students’ ability to judge the quality of their own performance (known as evaluative judgement) is considered key to placement success. Despite this, there is limited empirical research examining student feedback practices and their influence on evaluative judgement in the placement environment. This study sought to examine feedback practices in clinical placement and their contribution to the development of evaluative judgement. Three participant groups, occupational therapy students, placement supervisors, and university placement support staff took part in semi-structured interviews. Data were analysed using document and thematic analyses. Findings suggest students use a range of active feedback practices during placement, seeking feedback from multiple sources in different forms. Feedback practices appear pivotal in developing evaluative judgement but this often requires patching together of disparate, complex and competing information. Placement supervisors need to scaffold feedback so that students can develop evaluative judgement.