Nursing student's satisfaction and reactions to oral versus written feedback during clinical education

Clinical instruction is known as the essence of education in medical sciences, while feedback delivery is a core responsibility of clinical instructors. This study aims to compare the nursing student's satisfaction and reactions to oral versus written feedback during clinical education. This is a single blinde, randomized controlled trial. A purposive sample of last semester-nursing students (n=44) was selected and randomly assigned into one of verbal or written feedback groups. Each instructor (n=3) was scheduled to teach two groups, and deliver either verbal or written feedback. Instructors were well attuned to feedback delivery sessions they would hold during their instructional tasks. Instructors were asked to give necessary feedback to the students and document the details of their reaction using the checklists designed for this purpose during the instruction period, daily and during the nine days of instruction. At the end of each instruction period, a questionnaire designed to measure the satisfaction level of feedback delivery sessions was filled out by students. The study did not show difference of satisfaction level between the oral and written feedback groups. The relationship between student's reactions and feedback type at the confidence level of 90% was significant, so that students who received oral feedback showed more severe reactions as compared to written feedback group. Students, satisfaction level in both groups was the same. There is no difference in student's satisfaction between verbal versus written feedback groups. But the number of severe negative reactions in verbal feedback group was significantly higher and this is congruent with previous studies.