title: Effectiveness of a focused educational intervention on resident evaluations from faculty a randomized controlled trial.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To improve the quality and specificity of written evaluations by faculty attendings of internal medicine residents during inpatient rotations.
  
  
  METHODS
  Prospective randomized controlled trial.
  
  
  METHODS
  Four hospitals: tertiary care university hospital, Veterans' Administration hospital, and two community hospitals.
  
  
  METHODS
  Eighty-eight faculty and 157 residents from categorical and primary-care internal medicine residency training programs rotating on inpatient general medicine teams.
  
  
  METHODS
  Focused 20-minute educational session on evaluation and feedback, accompanied by 3 by 5 reminder card and diary, given to faculty at the start of their attending month.
  
  
  RESULTS
  
  
  
  METHODS
  1) number of written comments from faculty specific to unique, preselected dimensions of competence; 2) number of written comments from faculty describing a specific resident behavior or providing a recommendation; and 3) resident Likert-scale ratings of the quantity and effect of feedback received from faculty. Faculty in the intervention group provided more written comments specific to defined dimensions of competence, a median of three comments per evaluation form versus two in the control group, but when adjusted for clustering by faculty, the difference was not statistically significant (P =.09). Regarding feedback, residents in the intervention group rated the quantity significantly higher (P =.04) and were significantly more likely to make changes in clinical 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 faculty behavior for written evaluations and promoted higher quality feedback given to house staff.
authors.affiliation: Yale University Primary Care Internal Medicine Residency Program, New Haven, CT 06510, USA. eholmboe@msn.com
authors.forename: E S
authors.initials: ES
authors.lastname: Holmboe
authors.forename: N H
authors.initials: NH
authors.lastname: Fiebach
authors.forename: L A
authors.initials: LA
authors.lastname: Galaty
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Huot
mesh_terms: D002983:Clinical Competence; D004521:Educational Measurement; D005180:Faculty, Medical; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007388:Internal Medicine / Q000193:education*; D007396:Internship and Residency / Q000379:methods*; D008297:Male; D011446:Prospective Studies; D013223:Statistics as Topic; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires