The Art and Science of Learning, Teaching, and Delivering Feedback in Psychosomatic Medicine

BackgroundThe teaching and learning of psychosomatic medicine has evolved with the better understanding of effective teaching methods and feedback delivery in medicine and psychiatry.ObjectivesWe sought to review the variety of teaching methods used in psychosomatic medicine, to present principles of adult learning (and how these theories can be applied to students of psychosomatic medicine), and to discuss the role of effective feedback delivery in the process of teaching and learning psychosomatic medicine.MethodsIn addition to drawing on the clinical and teaching experiences of the authors of the paper, we reviewed the literature on teaching methods, adult learning theories, and effective feedback delivery methods in medicine to draw parallels for psychosomatic medicine education.ResultsWe provide a review of teaching methods that have been employed to teach psychosomatic medicine over the past few decades. We outline examples of educational methods using the affective, behavioral, and cognitive domains. We provide examples of learning styles together with the principles of adult learning theory and how they can be applied to psychosomatic medicine learners. We discuss barriers to feedback delivery and offer suggestions as to how to give feedback to trainees on a psychosomatic medicine service.ConclusionsThe art of teaching psychosomatic medicine is dynamic and will continue to evolve with advances in the field. Psychosomatic medicine educators must familiarize themselves with learning domains, learning styles, and principles of adult learning in order to be impactful. Effective feedback delivery methods are critical to fostering a robust learning environment for psychosomatic medicine.