Emotional Intelligence in Healthcare Can Help Trainees Process Negative Feedback
One critical comment can be difficult to forget, even when it appears alongside a long list of positive feedback.
That experience sits at the center of a 2024 perspective article by MGB University Alum Britlyn D. Orgill, MD along with MGBU faculty member, Bobbie Ann Adair White, EdD, MA, and MGB physician, Michael Warren, MD, MBA. The authors explore how emotional intelligence in healthcare may help trainees process negative feedback and use it as an opportunity for growth. Their recommendations also point to an important opportunity within medical education: teaching learners how to receive feedback, not only how to give it.
Why Negative Feedback Can Overshadow the Positive
The article opens with the experience of an anesthesia resident who receives a summative evaluation early in training. Most of the comments are positive. One short comment is vague, unspecific, and clearly negative.
That single comment consumes the resident’s attention.
Without knowing who wrote it, when the incident occurred, or what prompted it, the resident tries to reconstruct previous clinical interactions. Feelings of anxiety, embarrassment, and defensiveness follow. The comment continues to bother the resident for months.
The authors use this example to illustrate a challenge that can occur throughout healthcare training. Written evaluations often lack the context that helps learners understand criticism. An isolated negative comment can also carry disproportionate emotional weight, even when the overall evaluation reflects strong performance.
Medical Education Can Better Prepare Learners to Receive Feedback
Much of the literature around feedback focuses on how educators should deliver it. The authors identify another need: helping learners understand what to do after they receive difficult feedback.
Traditional approaches such as the “feedback sandwich,” which places criticism between positive comments, attempt to make feedback easier to receive. Research suggests that this structure can feel inauthentic and may cause the learner to focus primarily on the criticism. (Molloy et al., 2020)
A more productive approach may involve helping trainees examine feedback within a larger context.
One strategy discussed in the article is Learner-Engaged Analysis of Feedback, or LEAF. In this model, a coach and learner review written feedback together and organize comments into broader categories, such as professionalism, knowledge, or technical skills. Learners who participated in this type of coaching reported greater satisfaction with their written evaluations. (Saddawi-Konefka et al., 2021)
The conversation itself matters, too. Research cited by the authors suggests that true dialogue can help residents better recognize and take ownership of both their strengths and weaknesses. (Duitsman et al., 2019)
How Emotional Intelligence in Healthcare Can Help
Emotional intelligence in healthcare provides another framework for understanding the response to criticism.
Emotional intelligence includes four domains: self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, and relationship management. The authors focus primarily on self-awareness and self-management as tools for receiving feedback.
Self-awareness helps trainees recognize what they feel when they encounter criticism. It also encourages them to consider both how they see themselves and how others may perceive them.
Instead of becoming stuck on the question of why someone made a negative comment, a learner can shift toward a more useful question: What can I learn from this?
Self-management helps with the next step. Once trainees recognize emotions such as insecurity, frustration, or embarrassment, they can choose how to respond. The authors recommend approaches such as pausing before reacting, seeking more information, practicing mindfulness, and considering feedback alongside a broader pattern of evaluations.
These skills may prove especially valuable for newer trainees who face high levels of stress and uncertainty as they develop their professional identities.
Building a Healthier Feedback Culture
The responsibility does not rest with learners alone.
Faculty can support trainees by providing feedback that is timely, specific, and actionable. Program leaders can encourage learners to view feedback as a tool for development by looking for patterns across evaluations rather than placing excessive weight on individual comments.
Protected time also matters. Emotional intelligence requires reflection, and busy clinical schedules can leave little room for trainees to process feedback thoughtfully. Creating structured opportunities for coaching and reflection may make feedback more useful and less emotionally disruptive.
Turning Difficult Feedback Into Professional Growth
The authors present emotional intelligence in healthcare as one promising way to improve the experience of receiving negative feedback. They also emphasize that educators still need to determine the most effective ways to teach these skills.
For medical education and healthcare training programs, the larger lesson is clear: effective feedback requires more than delivering a comment. Learners also need the skills, context, conversation, and time to understand what that feedback means and decide what to do next.
About the University Author
Bobbie Ann Adair White, EdD, MA, was the University-affiliated co-author of the article. She collaborated with Britlyn D. Orgill, MD, and Michael Warren, MD, MBA, from the Department of Anesthesia, Critical Care, and Pain Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital. The article started as an assignment in Bobbie Ann Adair White’s MS course, Leading with Emotional Intelligence in Teams, reflecting a collaboration between expertise in health professions education and graduate clinical education.
Citation