So, the "pass through" link causes the most misunderstanding among learners (15 learners from 38 learners of the class), and the instructor took the link as the main content of feedback in the form of the supplementary lecture.
However, varying only five of these elements (content of feedback, intensity of feedback, method of delivery, duration and context) produces 288 combinations [ 1].
The last column in Table 4 shows that only a minority of trainees gave high scores on quality of the content of feedback, whereas almost 70% indicated that their trainers took steps to ensure the consequential impact of feedback.
Technical aspects of how to give or receive effective feedback after a teaching session have been discussed extensively (see for example [ 6, 7]) and tools are being developed for assessing competence to inform the content of feedback [ 8, 9].
Studies suggest that the style and content of feedback is important [ 43], and there may be potential in testing different methods of presenting the data and the use of qualitative information from patients to complement quantitative data.
It should be noted that the correlation between neuroticism and the quality of the content of feedback turned out to run in opposite to the direction we had hypothesized.
Neuroticism could have a negative effect on the content of feedback because people with a more neurotic personality are more easily frustrated, irritable and prone to react violently [ 23].
Surgeon involvement in feedback (either active or passive), standardised means of assessing surgical performance (which may be both generic and procedure-specific), content of feedback, timing of feedback relative to the procedure (intraoperatively/postoperatively), and the opportunities available for discussion, correction and learning.
