Face-to-face clinical skills feedback: lessons from the analysis of standardized patient's work.

Background: Current evidence suggests that trainees are evaluated less stringently when feedback is given face-to-face, limiting its value.

Purpose: We expected that standardized patients (SPs) would also be more lenient in scoring when they gave immediate feedback to the students.

Methods: Data from 6 clinical skills assessments of students in Years 1 to 4 of medical school were used. Comparisons in scoring were made for the cases on which students received feedback and those where they did not. Analysis was done using a hierarchical linear regression model to test for significant differences.

Results: The results indicated no significant difference in scoring for the history and physical exam checklists. There was a small but significant difference on the measure of interpersonal and interviewing skills.

Conclusions: The SPs were trained to avoid stringency, leniency, and restricted range in scoring students. These training methods may be useful for training faculty to give face-to-face feedback.