UK palliative medicine trainees and multisource communication skills feedback: an educational tool?

Background Multisource feedback provides ratings of a trainee doctor's performance from a range of assessors and enables 360 degree feedback on communication skills and team working behaviours. It is a tool used throughout palliative medicine training in the UK. There are limited data on the value of multisource feedback from a palliative medicine trainee perspective. Aim To study the views of palliative medicine trainees regarding multisource feedback as an educational tool to develop communication skills. Design A multimodal study encompassing a focus group and questionnaire mailed to all deanery palliative doctors. Setting/participants All palliative medicine trainees within a UK training deanery. Results Over half of responding trainees thought multisource feedback had little or no impact on their clinical practice. Improvements in delivery of multisource feedback to maximise learning were identified, including skilled feedback and facilitation by educational supervisors. Conclusions Despite multisource feedback currently having limited benefits, a number of recommendations are suggested to improve this.