Quality Feedback

 Before providing feedback, ask your student how the evaluation or treatment session went. Having a student tell you in his or her own words their assessment of the session may give you valuable information based on his/her perception of how something is going.

Make sure your feedback is based on direct observation.  Only the facts,  not what you've heard from others. If you hear a report from another medical professional or colleague, then tell your student where you heard your information. Be open.  Allow your student to respond and provide suggestions accordingly. 

Too often we base feedback on personality traits. Think about the feedback you are providing. Be descriptive, specific and only base feedback on actions or performances that you see.

Make sure feedback is balanced.  You want to reinforce (support good behaviors, highlight bad ones) and modify (change, adjust, adapt behaviors) as needed.  Just know that the student may still have an emotional response.

There's nothing worse than receiving feedback and not knowing what to do with it. Make sure that when you provide modifying feedback (aka constructive feedback), offer suggestions for improvement.

Give constructive criticism in small doses, and do it privately if needed.  Keep notes of concepts you want to talk about with your student, then focus on what is the most important to start. Try not to call them out in front of a large group of people (no one likes that).  It may be tempting to try to fix all your student's mistakes at once, but too many suggestions can overwhelm the student. Work through one concept at a time.