Feedback
they can use.
Connect coaching, questioning, reflection, and feedback through the next practice opportunity.
Get the worked-example guide ↓LEARNING MOVING
The feedback continues
with the next attempt.
Hear the nurse’s thinking. Teach the missing connection. Return to the performance together.
Feedback belongs
inside the teaching.
A conversation helps you understand the learning need. Coaching and supported practice help address it. The next performance gives you information about what to teach next.
A nursing review describes coaching, reflective questioning, meaningful feedback, and interactive learning in approaches to developing new-graduate clinical thinking.1
This guide connects those teaching moves through an illustrative encounter. You may move between asking, explaining, demonstrating, and practicing more than once.
From understanding
to the next conversation.
Follow the learning
through one encounter.
A nurse needed a reminder to reassess after an intervention. You completed the required care together. Later, you return to the learning.
“You needed a reminder to reassess after that intervention. At this stage, we’re working toward you identifying the reassessment plan and carrying it out with the agreed supervision.”
Describe the observed performance. Make the expected standard clear.
“Talk me through what you were thinking after you completed it.”
Learner: “I was focused on finishing the next task. I wasn’t sure when to check back.”
The answer identifies what to teach. Avoid continuing to quiz a nurse who needs an explanation.
“Let’s work through this together: what response are we expecting, when should we reassess, and what findings would mean you need help?”
Explain your reasoning and use the relevant local guidance. Have the learner explain the plan, then provide supervised practice.
Hands-on practice fits here when the learning need involves a skill. Discussion alone may not address it.
“At the next relevant opportunity, talk me through your reassessment plan before we proceed. I’ll stay involved, and we’ll review what happened afterward.”
Choose the practice opportunity, support, and review. Use the explanation to check understanding, then observe the next supervised performance.
Illustrative teaching exchange. Select timing, assessment, escalation, and supervision for the actual situation and local policy.
Notice the progress.
Keep teaching the gap.
At a later supervised opportunity, the nurse identifies reassessment timing without a reminder. They still need help interpreting the findings.
“This time, you planned the reassessment without a reminder. That is progress. You still needed support interpreting what you found. Let’s work through those findings together.”
The feedback changes because the observed performance changed.
If the change is visible
Name the action worth repeating. Look at how it carries into another relevant situation. Use the existing orientation process to determine progression and supervision.
If the same gap remains
Clarify where it breaks down: understanding the expectation, applying the plan, or completing it. Adjust explanation, demonstration, or supervised practice. Recurrent or serious concerns need educator involvement and the existing assessment process.
If your teaching needs to change
Ask, “What would help you apply this next time?” Listen to feedback about your explanation, pace, or support. Receiving feedback is part of the preceptor’s learning, too.
Use the learning opportunity
you already have.
During prioritization, a procedure, patient teaching, reassessment, or escalation, agree on what you are looking for. Observe the performance, hear the reasoning, and teach the connection that needs work.
Keep the focus manageable, make a safe opportunity to practice, and return to what happened. This need not become another worksheet; keep required orientation and reporting documentation.
Use a private setting for corrective discussion when practical. Intervene immediately when safety requires it.
Research behind
the teaching.
References
- Schuelke S, Barnason S. (2017). Interventions Used by Nurse Preceptors to Develop Critical Thinking of New Graduate Nurses: A Systematic Review. Journal for Nurses in Professional Development, 33(1), E1–E7. Read source ↗
- Burgess A, van Diggele C, Roberts C, Mellis C. (2020). Feedback in the clinical setting. BMC Medical Education, 20(Suppl 2), 460. Read source ↗
- Myers K, Chou CL. (2016). Collaborative and Bidirectional Feedback Between Students and Clinical Preceptors: Promoting Effective Communication Skills on Health Care Teams. Journal of Midwifery & Women’s Health, 61(S1), S22–S27. Read source ↗
Keep teaching
through the next attempt.
A two-page worked example connecting feedback to reasoning, coaching, practice, and review.