Evaluation of Multiscore Feedback in Professionalism for Anesthesia

Professionalism is one of the six competences required by The Accreditation for Graduate Medical Education Outcome Project to be taught and evaluated during residency. Anesthesia residents are faced with unique communication challenges in their practice including brief contact time with their patients, operating room efficiency pressure, etc. To assess professionalism in Anesthesiology residents is important to obtain evaluations from people with whom they interact including patients, surgeons, colleagues and members of the support team. The Multisource feedback (MSF) approach has been used to evaluate communication skills and professionalism among practicing physicians and residents in a variety of settings. This evaluation model has never been used previously to evaluate anesthesia residents. The investigators propose a randomized controlled trial to validate and evaluate a MSF in professionalism for anesthesia residents. Participants include eighty residents doing two months rotation in Pediatric Anesthesia Department at The Cleveland Clinic Anesthesia Institute from July 1, 2011 and June 30, 2013. MSF questionnaires will be validated using face and content validity methods and comparing them with the current system of evaluation. Residents will be randomly assigned to a feedback group or to the control group. Both groups will receive MSF evaluation from the faculty, patients' parent and coworker. Only the group assigned to feedback is going to have a 'coaching meeting' every month to identify strengths and weaknesses and create strategies for improvement. The investigators are planning to compare the mean values of the baseline evaluations with the mean values obtained after the first and second months from the MSF.