The one cloud on a sunny day: Using emotional intelligence to manage emotions from negative written feedback.

ABSTRACT

Physician trainees receive anonymous written feedback about their clinical performance, which can be challenging to interpret. Negative written feedback can evoke a strong emotional response. An educational gap exists on how to handle receiving negative written feedback and the accompanying emotions. Teaching trainees the tenets of emotional intelligence, including emotional self-awareness and self-management, could be an avenue to improve the experience of receiving feedback. Face-to-face coaching may also help improve the emotional experience of receiving written feedback.