clinical skills Archives | The Short Coat

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How to Take Negative Feedback And Use It to Win in Med School

Recently, our admissions coordinator Rachel was surprised by the reaction from an applicant CCOM chose not to admit. She’d set aside time to give the applicant some feedback on their application–an extra service we provide those who weren’t successful in their bid to study medicine here. But instead of a thoughtful reaction to her notes, the unsuccessful applicant told her that they “didn’t agree with any of that.”

The problem with this attitude is that in medical school feedback is never ending! Students get notes on interpersonal skills, professional behaviors, clinical skills, your knowledge base. And the feedback comes from everyone involved: simulated patients, actual patients, faculty, residents, nurses, even each other! Sometimes the feedback is formal and written; sometimes it’s verbal; and sometimes all you get is a raised eyebrow or a smile. Sometimes it’s rough, other times it’s SMART.

So M2s Zach Grissom, Sahana Sarin, Srishti Mathur, and Jay Miller give their take on this vital skill in medicine: using feedback as data, as fuel for growth. They share stories of getting useful and useless feedback. And whether you love it or hate it, you’ll leave with a playbook for using feedback to boost your success in medical school and your career.

Also, we discuss a study on AI “de-skilling,” and recent shifts in the amount of research medical students are doing versus the number of service and humanities experiences they’re doing.

Episode credits:

Producer: Dave Etler
Co-hosts: Zach Grissom, Srishti Mathur, Sahana Sarin, Jay Miller

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Few students like exams. That probably wasn’t close-to-mind when, in 1999, the Liaison Committee on Medical Education, which accredits medical colleges, decreed that the Carver College of Medicine would incorporate clinical skills assessment into the curriculum. Then, in 2004, the National Board of Medical Examiners began using the Step II Clinical Skills test as part of the United States Medical Licensing Examination. This Step, one of the three that seeks to ensure students are becoming competent doctors, required students to demonstrate their clinical skills on live actors. These actors played standardized roles so that the examination results would be meaningful.

So it was that the University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine, and MD programs across the country, created the Performance-Based Assessment Program. The PBA program was charged with preparing third-year students for this new exam. They did this the exact same way the NBME did it: by hiring actors to portray patients with various complaints to test what third- and fourth-year students had learned about interviewing such patients.

Since then the program has grown tremendously. Now they don’t just test medical students, but they teach them as well. Things like general physical exam skills, PE skills specific to male and female patients, communication skills, and a lot more.

On this episode, students Cole Cheney, Senuri Jayatilleka, Michael Zhang, and Keenan Laraway joined simulated patients JC Luxton and Mary Nell Jackson meet for a little debate and an exchange of views on their roles as students and ‘fake patients.’

Listen to Episode 026 – Who Are These People, Anyway? Simulated Patients and Students.

The opinions expressed in this feed and podcast are not those of the University of Iowa or the Roy J. and Lucille A. Carver College of Medicine.

An honest guide to the amazing and intense world of medical school.