Communication skills teaching: the challenge of giving effective feedback

I have recently begun training teachers in ways to improve their students communication skills, and the experience has reminded me just how difficult it is to give effective feedback. In 2005, Henderson et al.¹ highlighted that the ability to give and receive effective feedback is a life-long skill; and one that all doctors need to develop if they are to engage in reflective practice. Effective feedback is complex. It involves someone s thoughts on another person s performance that are delivered in a form that enables the recipient to listen to what is being said, receive it constructively, reflect on what has been said and consider how to take action as a result .¹ Within communication skills teaching, the role of the facilitator in managing feedback is made even more complex: as well as being provided by the facilitator, feedback may be given by the group of students as a whole, the participant role-player or actor, or the patient. 

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