Does source matter? Nurses' and Physicians' perceptions of interprofessional feedback

Abstract

Objective Receptiveness to interprofessional feedback, which is important for optimal collaboration, may be influenced by ‘in‐group or out‐group’ categorisation, as suggested by social identity theory. We used an experimental design to explore how nurses and resident physicians perceive feedback from people within and outside their own professional group. Methods Paediatric residents and nurses participated in a simulation‐based team exercise. Two nurses and two physicians wrote anonymous performance feedback for each participant. Participants each received a survey containing these feedback comments with prompts to rate (i) the usefulness (ii) the positivity and (iii) their agreement with each comment. Half of the participants received feedback labelled with the feedback provider's profession (two comments correctly labelled and two incorrectly labelled). Half received unlabelled feedback and were asked to guess the provider's profession. For each group, we performed separate three‐way anovas on usefulness, positivity and agreement ratings to examine interactions between the recipient's profession, actual provider profession and perceived provider profession. Results Forty‐five out of 50 participants completed the survey. There were no significant interactions between profession of the recipient and the actual profession of the feedback provider for any of the 3 variables. Among participants who guessed the source of the feedback, we found significant interactions between the profession of the feedback recipient and the guessed source of the feedback for both usefulness (F1,48 = 25.6; p < 0.001; η2= 0.35) and agreement ratings (F1,48 = 8.49; p < 0.01; η2= 0.15). Nurses' ratings of feedback they guessed to be from nurses were higher than ratings of feedback they guessed to be from physicians, and vice versa. Among participants who received labelled feedback, we noted a similar interaction between the profession of the feedback recipient and labelled source of feedback for usefulness ratings (F1,92 = 4.72; p < 0.05; η2= 0.05). Conclusion Our data suggest that physicians and nurses are more likely to attribute favourably perceived feedback to the in‐group than to the out‐group. This finding has potential implications for interprofessional feedback practices.

Identity matters - perceptions of inter-professional feedback in the context of workplace-based assessment in Diabetology training: a qualitative study

“…In parallel, the opportunity to participate in an interprofessional wpba made AHP feel a valuable part of that very team. At first glance, our results seem to contradict those of the literature [5,6]. It should be noted, however, that the perception of feedback usefulness in most studies was at the meta-level and did not refer to a concrete interaction between professional groups, as is the case in this study.…”

“…One recent study found that students have positive perceptions of inter-professional feedback, without systematic bias against any specific professional group [4]. It seems that this receptiveness to inter-professional feedback is decreasing when medical trainees progress and eventually become residents [5,6]. Residents report limited exposure to inter-professional feedback in clinical routine but would in principle see opportunities for an effective use of inter-professional feedback [5].…”

Exploring group boundaries and conflicts: a social identity theory perspective

“…Social identity theory can be particularly helpful in understanding interprofessional teamwork in health care . For example, it was used to show that paediatric residents and nurses tended to value feedback coming from members of their own professional group more than interprofessional feedback . Furthermore, social identity theory considers group processes to be highly dynamic.…”

Factors that Contribute to Nursing and Medical Students’ Perceptions of the Nurse-Physician Relationship

“…This correlates with Tajfel"s (1982) social identity theory in its assumption that individuals automatically put themselves into an in-group to increase self-esteem. Schaik, O"Sullivan, Eva, Irby, and Regehr (2016) discovered that nurses and physicians were more likely to guess that helpful feedback came from members of their own profession.…”