Peer feedback among healthcare professionals on social media

I admit, giving and receiving feedback aren’t my strongest points. All these years I gave and received all sorts of feedback – some informal, mostly formal while a few times brutal, to and from almost everyone in the industry. I can tell you that receiving and giving feedback never gets easier with time.

Feedback is the breakfast of champions.
Ken Blanchard

Few weeks ago a well respected colleague and friend gave me a feedback. He underpinned a nagging problem highlighting my inefficiency as an institutional manager. My reaction? Mixed. I am so glad he pointed out the lapse and triggered a cascade of corrective measures on our part. Sad, because a very good friend decided to end his professional service with us. On top though I felt weirdly happy because someone I respected and look up to gave the feedback. I took time off to process this reaction. Is my reaction because of the person who gave the feedback or the manner in which he gave one?

Why health care needs a feedback

Feedback is the fuel that drives improved performance.
Eric Parsloe

Often incorporated into assessments, all human performance fields needed some form of feedback to improve. “Improving health outcomes and lowering cost of delivery hinge on a dynamic and regular feedback system” echoes many health experts. Feedback compels healthcare professionals and scientists to answer the most pressing problems besetting healthcare. Given properly and consistently, feedback identifies and narrows gaps in health care.

Who gives feedback in health?

Years back, a mentor shared a tip about improving my own “skill” of giving feedback. This is what he said:

“Be a mirror. Listen. Most of the time that’s all you need to do”.

Healthcare professionals value feedback from peers more than anyone else, studies have shown. Feedback helps build confidence and competence among healthcare professionals especially if it came from well respected peers. I can tell you being an orthopedic surgeon for some years, it ain’t easy receiving advise from someone who neither went under your bone drill nor is wielding one. But I am very happy. Indeed that feedback from an “outsider” changed a lot in me both personally and professionally.

Social media feedback

While formal assessment and feed backing happen mostly in the confines of healthcare, spillage into social media are not uncommon. Given the new culture of radical transparency and accountability, social media invariably complicates the health care feedback environment. One needed a host of new skills to be an effective feedback giver and receiver over social media. Why? Studies have shown patients and relatives value healthcare professional’s online health opinions more than anyone else. To some degree, social media postings of a healthcare professionals affect the public’s opinion on our overall competencies.

Take the vaccine or the specialty certifying controversy. These controversies rocked the medical profession and spilled over into social media. Some of this country’s well respected medical experts sat on opposing ends of a social media debate, giving and taking feedback from each other, under vigilant public scrutiny. This public display of feedback (PDF) while undoubtedly a very healthy debate amongst peers, often befuddle the public mind. #HealthXPh previously discussed patients social media feedback in a previous tweetchat some years ago here. What picked my curiosity is how social media feedback between peers affect the personal and professional lives of healthcare professionals.

Join #HealthXPh chat this Saturday August 31, 9:00 PM Manila time as we discuss how healthcare professionals give and receive peer feedback on social media.

T1: Is social media an effective platform for giving and receiving peer feedback? Explain.
T2: What are the challenges to giving or receiving feedback from peers on social media?
T3: How do you give an effective peer feedback over social media?
T4: How do you process a peer feedback given over social media?

Social media is probably here to stay. So is feedback. How should healthcare professionals, give or receive feedback on social media platforms is a matter of preference. The fact remains though that improving outcomes and lowering cost of delivery hinge on a dynamic, actionable and consistent feedback system. Social media offers is an emerging platform for peer to peer feedback in healthcare