Does a Written Tool to Guide Structured Debriefing Improve Discourse? Implications for Interprofessional Team Simulation

PURPOSE

Timely debriefing following a simulated event supports learners in critically reflecting on their performance and areas for improvement. Content of debriefing has been shown to affect learner skill acquisition and retention. The use of good judgment statements from debriefing facilitators is considered superior to judgmental or nonjudgmental statements. Ideally, the majority of the conversation will consist of learner self-reflection and focused facilitation rather than directive performance feedback. We hypothesized that the introduction of a written tool to help facilitate high-quality debriefing techniques could improve the ratio of judgmental, nonjudgmental, and good judgment statements from facilitators, as well as shift the percentage of talk in the debrief away from directive performance feedback and toward self-assessment and focused facilitation.

METHODS

The University of Wisconsin Joint Trauma Simulation Program is an interdisciplinary project to improve quality of trauma care through simulation. Simulations use teams of five trauma trainees: two surgery residents, an emergency medicine resident, and two nurses. Three faculty members conducted the scenarios and debriefings. Debriefings were video recorded. Videos were transcribed and dialogue analyzed according to the teaching/learning strategy used in each turn of talk. Discourse was coded into three categories: (1) learner self-assessment; (2) focused facilitation; and (3) directive performance feedback. Each facilitation statement was coded as either (1) judgmental; (2) nonjudgmental, or (3) good judgment. The TEAM Debrief Tool is a written guide designed to help facilitators adhere to best practices, with example structure and phrasing, similar to the Promoting Excellence and Reflective Learning in Simulation tool. Pre- and post-implementation analysis was completed to assess for efficacy of the tool.

RESULTS

Seven videos before the implementation of the tool and seven videos after implementation were analyzed. The percentage of learner self-assessment increased significantly with tool use (7.23% vs 24.99%, p = 0.00004), and directive performance feedback decreased significantly (56.13% vs 32.75%, p = 0.0042). There was no significant change in the percentage of talk using focused facilitation. After implementation of the tool, there was a significant decrease in use of the nonjudgmental debriefing style (60.63% vs 37.31%, p = 0.00017), and a significant increase in the use of good judgment debriefing (38.77% vs 59.82%, p = 0.00038). There was also a slight increase in judgmental debriefing (0.60% vs 2.87%, p = 0.0027).

CONCLUSIONS

The discourse in our interprofessional trauma simulation debriefings unaided by a written debriefing tool skewed heavily toward direct performance feedback, with a preponderance of nonjudgmental statements. After introduction of the tool, dialogue shifted significantly toward learner self-assessment, and there was a large increase in utilization of debriefing with good judgment. This shift toward higher quality debriefing styles demonstrates the utility of such a tool in the debriefing of interprofessional simulations.