Clinical teachers’ motivations for feedback provision in busy emergency departments: a multicentre qualitative study

BACKGROUND: Feedback is an effective pedagogical tool in clinical teaching and learning, but the actual perception by learners of clinical feedback is often described as unsatisfactory. Unlike assessment feedback or teaching sessions, which often happen within protected time and space, clinical feedback is influenced by numerous clinical factors. Little is known about clinical teachers’ motivations to provide feedback in busy clinical settings. We aimed to investigate the motivations behind feedback being given in emergency departments (EDs). METHODS: A qualitative analysis of semi-structured interview data was conducted between August 2015 and June 2016. Eighteen attending physicians were purposively sampled from three teaching hospital EDs in Taiwan. Data were thematically analysed, both inductively (from the data) and deductively (using self-determination theory (SDT)). Themes were mapped to the different motivation types identified by the SDT. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION: Despite working in busy clinical settings, Taiwanese ED clinical teachers reported being motivated to provide feedback when they felt responsible for their learners, when they understood the importance of feedback (patient safety and partner building), or simply because they were committed to following a tradition of passing on their clinical knowledge to their juniors. Suggestions to facilitate the internalisation of external motivations are proposed. CONCLUSIONS: In this qualitative study, motivations for clinical feedback were identified. Although the motivations are mostly extrinsic, the elicitation of internal motivation is possible once true satisfaction is fostered during the feedback-giving process. This understanding can be used to develop interventions to enable clinical feedback to be provided in a sustained manner.