Finding Feedback: How to Know How You’re Doing in Med School

Between the academic demands in the classroom, the challenges of clinical training, and just trying to maintain your mental and physical health along the way, medical school doesn’t always leave a lot of room for getting the kind of helpful feedback you need to feel confident about how you’re doing.

But going without feedback isn’t ideal. Wondering if you’re mastering the key knowledge and skills you need for success on the job can be an unnecessary distraction.

“Many have likened medical school to trying to drink water from a fire hose,” said Ellen Pearlman, MD, senior associate dean for education at the Frank H. Netter MD School of Medicine at Quinnipiac University, North Haven, Connecticut. “Because of the sheer amount of material covered in a short time, it is important to have a good sense of how you are doing early on, so that you don’t fall behind and get even more overwhelmed. Efficiency and effectiveness are at a premium.”

A 2023 report in BMC Medical Education noted that feedback not only affects medical students’ knowledge and beliefs about themselves, but it can also affect their behavior — specifically the way they approach their medical education and training.

The researchers also found that when feedback is presented in a constructive and supportive manner, it can fuel more effective learning and higher achievement. When receiving feedback is a “hostile experience,” the stress can negatively affect learning and may interfere with students’ ability to reach their potential, the researchers concluded.

But if you don’t feel you’re getting enough feedback or at least enough constructive feedback, what do you do? We talked with doctors and medical school administrators about some steps you can take to get a better sense of how you’re progressing. You may have more avenues to get feedback than you realize.

Business News Make the Most of a Mentor

Many medical schools have a formal process for matching students with mentors or faculty members who can help guide students at the outset of their medical training.

Like so many aspects of school, what you get out of your relationship with a mentor or other faculty member is up to you. It can be a rewarding and productive experience if you go into it with the mindset that this is one more way to learn and to prepare for your career.

“Our students are paired with a faculty member the first week of medical school as part of our collaborative learning group curriculum,” said Shelley Wells Collins, MD, senior associate dean for educational affairs at the University of Florida College of Medicine, Gainesville, Florida. She said medical students often have more opportunities to find mentors on their own.

“Other faculty or resident mentors can be identified through specialty preferences, our medical student research program, and informal connections with faculty during clinical activities or because of exposure during lectures or other learning activities,” Collins said. “Most medical school faculty are very interested in providing mentorship for students.”

Collins recommends students have several mentors who can provide support and guidance at various times and for various reasons and to find people who will also be sponsors and put students in positions to help their career.

Valerie Parkas, MD, an infectious disease specialist and senior associate dean of admissions and recruitment at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York City, said students at Sinai have career advisors, well-being advisors, clinical mentors, and specialty advisors.

“Medical students in the preclinical and clinical curriculum have contact with multiple people in every course, so asking your clinical mentor for feedback on clinical skills, for example, so that you can start the long process of learning communication skills, is essential,” Parkas said.

If your school doesn’t have a formalized mentorship program, feel free to talk to someone in the dean’s office for advice or reach out to a faculty member directly.

“Don’t feel shy about reaching out to faculty members who are available, accessible, and who create psychological safety,” Pearlman said. “Faculty members like this love to mentor. Set up an appointment with them, ask them if they would be comfortable being a mentor — yes, you can ask this — or if that feels uncomfortable, ask if they would be willing to have you check in with them from time to time.”

Participating in activities outside of the classroom, such as volunteering or joining school clubs or organizations, may provide you some informal access to potential mentors.

Business News Listen to Your Peers

Your fellow students can provide valuable clinical and classroom feedback, as well as morale boosts and the “we’re all in this together” kind of support that can get you through the tough times.

Parkas said receiving and providing feedback is a key part of being a doctor, so learning to do so constructively in medical school is a good idea.

“Medicine is a team endeavor,” she said. “We work in teams in the emergency room, the operating room, the inpatient services, and in outpatient medicine.”

That makes it very important in medical school to start the lifelong learning habit of checking in with your peers and colleagues and asking for feedback. It’s also important to ask all members of team for feedback, and this also starts during training, she said.

Peer mentorship and near-peer mentorship are also formalized in many medical schools.

“This allows medical students and trainees to teach each other, perfecting teaching skills, and allowing trainees to ‘all rise’ together,” Parkas said. “This mindset of all rising together is central to medical education.”

But don’t hesitate to seek out informal feedback as well.

“You can always ask a peer for feedback,” Pearlman said. “Pick someone whom you trust to give you balanced and helpful feedback. It can be helpful to ask permission initially, saying something like, ‘I was wondering if you would feel comfortable giving me some feedback?’ Then it is helpful to ask for both reinforcing and modifying feedback.”

For example, ask, “What do you think I am doing that is effective?” and “What do you think I could be doing to be more effective?” You may even want to start with your own self-assessment and ask for them to comment on it, Pearlman said.

Business News Listen to Yourself

Self-assessment and personal reflection can often produce some of the most useful feedback you can receive — in medical school and in life. Collins recommends focusing on your successes, stumbles, and everything in between.

“Self-reflection and journaling are great ways for students to process what goes on during their medical education,” she said. “The first academic challenge, the first failure, the first incredible success, the first patient experience — good or bad — can serve as a lesson learned for all of our students. When they write about it or spend time thinking about their experience, they often independently come up with ways they could have approached the situation differently or what they learned from it.”

She adds that reviewing cases is what physicians do as part of their professional quality assurance process, so beginning that type of reflection or analysis as a student can only help when you enter your residency and as you become an independent physician.

“Self-reflection in the form of journaling or conversation is important for perspective-taking,” Pearlman said. “It can remind you of how far you have come and keep you in touch with your purpose.”