• Michael Sanatani, Kylea Potvin, Henry Conter, Kimberly Trudgeon, and Andrew Warner.
• Department of Oncology, Division of Medical Oncology, Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry, Western University, London, ON, Canada. Michael.Sanatani@Lhsc.on.ca.
• BMC Med Educ. 2020 Jul 25; 20 (1): 236.

BackgroundDirect observation is necessary for specific and actionable feedback, however clinicians often struggle to integrate observation into their practice. Remotely audio-monitoring trainees for periods of time may improve the quality of written feedback given to them and may be a minimally disruptive task for a consultant to perform in a busy clinic.MethodsVolunteer faculty used a wireless audio receiver during the second half of students' oncology rotations to listen to encounters during clinic in real time. They then gave written feedback as per usual practice, as did faculty who did not use the listening-in intervention. Feedback was de-identified and rated, using a rubric, as strong/medium/weak according to consensus of 2/3 rating investigators.ResultsMonitoring faculty indicated that audio monitoring made the feedback process easier and increased confidence in 95% of encounters. Most students (19/21 respondents) felt monitoring contributed positively to their learning and included more useful comments. 101 written evaluations were completed by 7 monitoring and 19 non-monitoring faculty. 22/23 (96%) of feedback after monitoring was rated as high quality, compared to 16/37 (43%) (p < 0.001) for monitoring faculty before using the equipment (and 20/78 (26%) without monitoring for all consultants (p < 0.001)). Qualitative analysis of student and faculty comments yielded prevalent themes of highly specific and actionable feedback given with greater frequency and more confidence on the part of the faculty if audio monitoring was used.ConclusionsUsing live audio monitoring improved the quality of written feedback given to trainees, as judged by the trainees themselves and also using an exploratory grading rubric. The method was well received by both faculty and trainees. Although there are limitations compared to in-the-room observation (body language), the benefits of easy integration into clinical practice and a more natural patient encounter without the observer physically present lead the authors to now use this method routinely while teaching oncology students.

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