Giving feedback

Giving constructive feedback is a fundamental part of practice supervision.

This feedback can take different forms depending on the role that the practice supervisor is playing in student education, including:

• providing direct feedback to nursing and midwifery students on their conduct and achievement of proficiencies, professional values and skills, including where they don’t think the achievement has been met, or could be improved on
• providing feedback to improve overall student performance
• depending on the role of the practice supervisor in the student’s education, potentially working alongside practice and academic assessors in putting action plans in place to improve student performance

This process should be a collaborative one between the practice supervisor and the student The way in which it will be done will depend on the role of the practice supervisor and their level of responsibility for student learning.

Feedback should be provided in a timely way so that the student gets ample opportunity to act on any feedback, particularly where areas for improvement have been identified. A key part of giving feedback is adding relevant observations on the student’s conduct, proficiency and  achievement to the student’s record(s) of achievement.

These observations may include the observations of anyone else who has taken part in the student’s education, depending on the way in which practice supervision has been organised. For instance, the practice supervisor might ask for observations from people accessing the services, any other colleagues in the setting or even other students in the placement when recording their feedback.

Practice supervisors should be able to judge what is appropriate for each student, based on their knowledge and experience, linking back to the proficiencies that the student is trying to achieve.