Radha Sharma
School of Medicine
Is Multisource Feedback an Effective Tool to Assess Professionalism at Medical School ?
Keele University Medical School employs a multisource feedback ( MSF ) tool to evaluate medical students ’ professional development throughout the undergraduate degree . Students are assessed by a range of different assessors , including peers and teaching staff , across six domains including ; study skills , ability to engage in reflective discourse , personal organisation , respect for patients , teamwork and ethical practice . The MSF at Keele is employed as an electronic form which is convenient for assessors and easier to process . Although a feasible tool , the MSF has poor acceptability among students due to the forms often having a paucity of meaningful feedback from assessors and a fear of discrimination . These concerns are not unjustified as the MSF has been shown to have a poorer reliability due to the variation between assessor opinions of the students . There is also no universal consensus on the qualities that the MSF should assess in prospective doctors . Overall , the MSF does act as a vehicle for reflective and educational discussion to improve as a medical student , but as a standalone assessment tool has less educational value to medical students .
Postgraduate Conference 2020 Page 38