The Use of Memes to Improve Feedback Form Completion Rates Among Medical Students: A Quality Improvement Project

Background

Gathering high-quality feedback from medical students is essential for continuously improving clinical placements; however, response rates are often low. The aim of this two-cycle quality improvement (QI) project was to assess the current feedback form response rate at our centres and try to improve this with the use of humorous, culturally relevant memes.

Approach

In the first cycle, medical students received standard email or WhatsApp reminders asking them to complete feedback forms. In the second cycle, we introduced a novel reminder system which included the addition of placement individualised memes which encouraged feedback form completion by students. All reminders were sent to students at key intervals: during the week leading up to form distribution, on the day of distribution, and the day after.

Evaluation

Response rates were compared between the two cycles to evaluate the impact of the meme-based reminders on feedback form completion rates. A chi-square test of independence determined the differences between the response rates. There were 62 students not exposed to memes and 55 students exposed to memes. The use of memes increased the response rate from 32.3% to 85.5% (p < 0.001).

Implications

This QI project successfully improved the completion rates for end of clinical placement feedback forms by incorporating humour and culturally relevant content into reminders. The use of memes proved an effective and engaging tool for boosting student participation, helping the team achieve the desired feedback response rate and allowing for better quality assessment of our centre's medical placements.