Feedback: "overly nice" or a "roasting culture"? a student partnership approach in exploring a feedback literacy strategy in undergraduate pharmacy and medical education

Research emphasises the need for mutual understanding of feedback purpose, i.e. staff and student feedback literacy. Interprofessional practice is crucial to effective patient care. While undergraduates increasingly learn and are assessed together, less is known of their shared or differing experiences of feedback. This study aimed to explore how students and faculty in medicine and pharmacy perceive an evidence-informed draft feedback strategy.Methods A student partnership approach was taken to this cross-faculty study. Focus groups of faculty from the Schools of Medicine (SOM) and Pharmacy (SOP) were undertaken by a faculty researcher. A SOP student facilitated student focus groups across both schools. Data was thematically analysed using template analysis by staff and students from both schools.Results Three over-arching themes are described: feedback goals, environment and design. Heterogeneous conceptualisations make it difficult for faculty to signpost and students to recognise feedback. Feedback goals and operationalisation contrasted in junior and senior years. Junior students were frustrated by "overly nice", generic feedback; senior students baulked at a "roasting culture", more marked for medical students.Conclusion Despite an expanse of research-informed theory, processes in practice are unsupportive of feedback literacy. Even within programmes, context differs and must be considered when embedding a positive whole-programme feedback culture.Clinical Trial number Not applicable.