Students Provide Accurate, But Not Always Detailed, Feedback to a Peer Performing an Orthopedic Assessment Skill

Context: Athletic training students often practice psychomotor skills with their peers when learning skills and often assess one another and provide feedback. There is limited research examining the accuracy of the assessment and quality of the feedback athletic training students provide. Purpose: To examine the accuracy of the assessments and the quality of the feedback students provide to a peer performing an orthopedic special test (i.e., psychomotor skill). Design: Non-experimental repeated measures. Setting: Entry-level master's athletic training program. Participants: First year (n = 6) and second-year (n = 5) graduate students. Main Outcome Measures: During two separate sessions, subjects evaluated ten videos of a peer performing the FABER test for hip pathology. Accuracy of the assessments was examined through percent correct scores. The feedback was categorized as either comments provided on items performed incorrectly or items performed correctly. Quality of feedback was categorized as detailed or general. Results: Subjects assessed videos of a peer performing the FABER test with 97.83% accuracy. The subjects provided a total of 451 comments; 297 comments for items performed incorrectly and 154 comments for items performed correctly. The subjects provided detailed feedback 54.32% of the time and provided general feedback 45.68% of the time. Conclusions: Students can accurately assess a peer performing an orthopedic assessment skill and they also provide accurate feedback. However, the feedback is not always detailed. A peer assessment/feedback training program may improve the quality of feedback students provide.