This time of year is always a time for reflection for me. Although as nursing staff we continually reflect, there is something about the end of the year that makes me take stock.
It also coincides with planning activities for the following year, so considering what has worked well and what has been challenging is helpful. Feedback is a useful starting point for reflection and can help people develop and improve.
Providing unsolicited feedback is not always welcomed, even when trying to be helpful. In my household the domestic duties are largely divided by my husband doing the cleaning and me doing the cooking. Being a well-seasoned infection control nurse, I thought I would use a validated cleaning audit tool to provide an assessment of my husband’s cleaning.
My comments about his lack of high-level dusting were not well received and he seemed to completely ignore my balanced feedback on his exceptional vacuuming! He subsequently turned into a restaurant critic providing a review of the next meal I cooked.
The result, he went hungry for a few days, and I sat looking at dust on the top of the curtain poles. There are certainly better ways of approaching feedback.
Knowing what type of feedback to provide is important. In a previous role, robust feedback was expected and respected as a supportive mechanism to enhance the quality of our work. However, organisations have different cultures and expectations in relation to feedback. In a different organisation I was asked by a colleague to review a piece of work and spent hours, providing what I considered was a thoughtful and balanced review.
However, my colleague only wanted a quick sense check rather than a robust review of their work and was quite put out by what they perceived as criticism of the piece of work they were rightly proud of. I needed to understand the needs of the person requesting the review, both in terms of their sensitivity to feedback and the requirements of the task. A quick sense check is very different to a robust review.
The timing of feedback is important. Praising someone for work they did months ago is less impactful than providing it at the time. I am a bit like my labrador Dexter and prefer my feedback immediately, however this is not always possible. I recently completed a master’s in healthcare law and ethics. There was always a predictable gap between submission of an assignment and receiving the feedback. By the time feedback was received I had already moved on to the next piece of work and would focus solely on whether it passed rather than the comments. By doing this I denied myself the opportunity to improve, no doubt to the frustration of my lecturers.
Factoring in time to properly consider the assignment feedback became part of my process. This sounds basic and logical, but when my mind had moved onto the next assignment it took me time to get my head back into the previous assignment and fully understand the feedback and improve.
Feedback can sometimes be inconsistent. A few years ago, I received feedback from my team as part of a 360-degree review. One colleague said, ‘Supports me to find the answers for myself rather than spoon-feeding me’, another felt that I, ‘Provide no support at all, merely signposts me to where to find the answers.’ Could I be unsupportive and supportive at the same time? Which one was right? Should I just accept the one that is most pleasing to me? Or was it that different team members needed different things from me and there was a need to align our expectations?
As part of a leadership course, I had to obtain 10 pieces of anonymous feedback from colleagues. This was a great opportunity to understand different perspectives and use this to grow and learn. Anonymous feedback frees people up to say what they want and lessen the emotional burden on them. However, it also denies the receiver the opportunity to explore comments in more detail to understand the perspective better. I found this extremely helpful and constructive. A course colleague viewed this very differently and sought to identify anyone who had provided feedback which they perceived as negative and ‘challenge’ them on it.
Giving and receiving feedback is an important skill for nursing staff. Approached well it can motivate and lead to development, however it can also be demotivating and damaging when approached poorly. Providing balanced and actionable feedback is time-consuming and can take advanced interpersonal skills.
Receiving feedback can have difficulties, especially if it’s not something you want to hear. I only ask for feedback when I’m willing to receive it and use it to improve, and don’t penalise people for giving up their time to provide me with it, even if it’s not something I want to hear. People do not always have to follow or agree with any feedback offered, just respect the perspective provided and the intention. Although any feedback regarding high-level dusting should always be heeded!
Some useful information on feedback can be found: Practice-related-feedback
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