• Penny Henderson, Anne C Ferguson-Smith, and Martin H Johnson.
• Department of Anatomy, University of Cambridge, Downing Street, Cambridge, CB2 3DY, UK. ph286@cam.ac.uk
• BMC Med Educ. 2005 Jan 1; 5 (1): 11.

BackgroundThe ability to give and receive feedback effectively is a key skill for doctors, aids learning between all levels of the medical hierarchy, and provides a basis for reflective practice and life-long learning. How best to teach this skill?DiscussionWe suggest that a single "teaching the skill of feedback" session provides superficial and ineffective learning in a medical culture that often uses feedback skills poorly or discourages feedback. Our experience suggests that both the skill and the underlying attitude informing its application must be addressed, and is best done so longitudinally and reiteratively using different forms of feedback delivery. These feedback learning opportunities include written and oral, peer to peer and cross-hierarchy, public and private, thereby addressing different cognitive processes and attitudinal difficulties.SummaryWe conclude by asking whether it is possible to build a consensus approach to a framework for teaching and learning feedback skills?

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