A Review of Feedback in Midwifery Education

Midwifery is one of the vital fields in the health care system where clinical education is highly important for students and feedback is an essential element of clinical education. This paper provides a review of feedback in midwifery education.
In this narrative review study, databases of SID, IranMedex, Irandoc, Magiran, PubMed, ERIC, Google scholar and Science direct were searched through using keywords like feedback, reflection, midwifery. The Persian and English articles on feedback in midwifery, published from 1980 to 2015, were included in the study.
A total of 742 articles were found. Regarding the research goal, seven articles were finally reviewed after removing duplicates. The most important results of the review were in the domains of consensus on the necessity of feedback, challenges and advantages of feedback in midwifery education and existence of inadequate performance in giving feedback in midwifery education. Students and faculty members agreed on giving feedback. The advantages of feedback in midwifery education include stimulation of reflection, elimination of deficiencies, personal growth, increased problem solving skills and group discussion.
Since the present review study suggests that the viewpoints of faculty members and students about the status of feedback in clinical education are not the same, a broader assessment of feedback in clinical education from the perspective of all stakeholders is recommended in order to take appropriate measures to fill possible gaps.