Tag Archives: debriefing

August 18, 2015 · 2:56 am

Great Debriefing Should Stimulate Active Reflection

shutterstock_284271476_aDebriefing in simulation as well as after clinical events is a common method of continuing the learning process through helping participants garner insight from their participation in the activity. It is postulated and I believe, part of the power of this “conversation” when call debriefing is when the participant engages in active reflection. The onus is on the debriefer to create an environment where active reflection occurs.

One of the most effective ways to achieve this goal is through questions. When participants are asked questions regarding the activity being debriefed it forces them to replay the scenario or activity in their mind. I find it helpful to begin with rather open-ended broader questions for two reasons. The first is to ensure the participant(s) are ready to proceed. Secondly asking broader questions at the beginning such as “Can you give me a recap of what you just experienced?” Helps to force the participant to think about the activity in a longitudinal way. Gradually the questions become much more specific to allow the participant to understand cause and effect relationships between their performance in the activity and the outcomes of the case.

Another thing to consider is that when debriefing multiple people simultaneously, when a recollection of the activity is being recalled by one participant, the other participants are actively thinking about their own recognition of said activity. Thus active reflection is again triggered. It is quite natural for the other participants to not only be thinking about the activity, but actively forming their own thoughts in a comparison/contrast type of cognitive activity. During this period they are comparing their own recollection of the activity with the one of the person answering the initial question.

Question should be focused in a way that the debriefer is controlling the conversation through a structured pathway that allows the learning objectives to be met. Further, when one develops good debriefing habits through the use of questioning it limits the possibility of the debriefing converting into a ”mini – lecture”.

I believe the Structured and Supported debriefing model created by my colleague Dr. John O’Donnell along with collaborators, provides the best framework by which to structure the debriefing. His use of the GAS mnemonic has effectively allowed the model to be introduced to both novice and expert debriefers alike and facilitate an easily learned structured framework into their debriefing work. We have been able to successfully introduce this model across many cultures and at least five different languages and have had significant success.

Worksheets, or job-aids with some example questions that parallel the learning objectives can be written on such tools prior to the scenario commencement. Supplementing the job aid with additional notes during the performance of the scenario can be helpful to recall the important points of discussion at the time of debriefing, and the preformed questions can serve as gentle reminders to the debriefer on topics that must be covered to achieve a successful learning outcome.

So a challenge to you is the next time you conduct a debriefing be thinking in the back of your mind how can I best force my participants to engage in active reflection of the activity that is bring debriefed. In addition, I would recommend that you practice debriefing as often as you can! Debriefing is an activity that improves over time with experience and deliberate practice.

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June 30, 2014 · 10:22 pm

Feedback – More Than Just Debriefing

EKG_Feedback

Too often in the designs of scenarios for simulation there is a lack of attention to the fact that there are many forms of feedback that occurs during a simulation than the debriefing. Debriefing is certainly an important part of any learning encounter, but in reality represents only one type of feedback.

As you think about sources of feedback I ask you to be both creative and attentive. I like to think of feedback in two broad categories, intrinsic and extrinsic. The latter being the more commonly thought of mechanisms such as debriefings, video reviews, and simulator log file reviews etc. with the former being the topic of this post.

What I find to be of significant interest as it related to the design of scenarios is the feedback that occurs intrinsically. That is clues, or changes that occur during the scenarios that are available to the participant to incorporate in their understanding of how their decisions, treatments, or lack thereof, are affecting the statues of the patient.

Many of you might be saying, what are you talking about???? Ha!!! Now on to my favorite part which is providing concrete examples to help explain myself further.  Let’s say you are simulating a pelvic fracture case with hypotension and shock. The vitals’ of the high technology simulator that you may be using for the case would likely show tachycardia and hypotension etc. Now lets say the participant(s) place a pelvic binding device and give a unit of blood. You may include changes in the vitals appearing on the monitor that indicated that there was mild to moderate improvement of the patient. Perhaps the tachycardia would decrease and the blood pressure may improve over a set period of time.

During the design process of the scenario many people may create the changes in the vitals thinking they are mimicking reality of what may occur.  More importantly I think those involved in the design of the scenario should realize that the changes in the vitals referred to above are a source of important intrinsic feedback. The participants should be able to make the observations and decide they are helping the patient to improve.

This can be powerful feedback that links together successful performance with particular behaviors or decisions that were made. It is self-discovery, it will help to guide further care and decisions if the scenario continues. If the designer of the scenarios recognizes this intrinsic feedback in the design phases, additional creative solutions can be implemented to reinforce the learning.

While my pelvic fracture example shows a positive change tin the patient based on correct actions, the converse example could be true if incorrect care is being rendered. Consider that if you have a heart attack case with hypotension and the patient is administered aspirin and nitroglycerin. You would likely worsen the shock from a physiological perspective. Seeing this change will provide intrinsic feedback to the learners(s).

This is not to say that it all has to do with fancy feedback from high technology simulators. The same could be accomplished with showing a worsening EKG on paper if treatment is incorrect or delayed, or conversely showing and improving EKG for the right treatment given within the appropriate time.

Approaching feedback from a deliberate perspective can be helpful in reinforcing learning. It should be recognized as a design tool and carefully integrated into the core deign of any scenario. Debriefing can be linked to these feedback areas in the scenario. This can provide valuable links or areas ripe for discussion to assist in accomplishing the learning objectives.

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November 4, 2013 · 8:39 am

Patient Centered Debriefing – The Ultimate Goal

I am growing more and more concerned about the pacifism by which I hear people approaching their debriefing efforts as I travel about the world. The phrase “safe learning environment” is being hijacked into some sort of process during which the only thing that matters in the world is the feelings of the learners participating in the simulations. So much so that some are saying you shouldn’t tell students what they didn’t do correctly and that during debriefing you should only focus on that which went well and then have a group hug at the end. This is being claimed under banners of student centric debriefing, “safe learning environments”.

 

Do these same educators harbor the fear and trepidation that students might be sad if they perform poorly on a written test? Do these same educators realize what a disservice they are doing for the students when you step back and look at the big picture?  Maybe the educators themselves have a tough time bucking up and delivering the news, doing the HARD WORK of simulation. Perhaps, this shifting or trending is partly evolving because many of the people involved in the teaching and theorizing about simulation feedback don’t see patients on the frontline of the healthcare battlefield.

 

 

I am certainly not advocating that we don’t need to be mindful of students emotions and psychological well being during simulation education activities, but come on people, healthcare decisions and actions involving patient care need to be near perfect. Every Time.  We need to be certain that when participants leave our simulations they have a clear understanding of what was right and what was wrong not just do a deep dive into their feelings carefully guarded by the emotions police and find happy things to chat about.

 

 

I am sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but providing healthcare is hard work, stressful and requires excellence. We need to develop/reinforce excellence in the participants of our simulations and help them achieve their goal, which is to get better at what they do. Every healthcare professional in the world has this as a goal at some level. How we reach out to them and help them along this journey needs to be PATIENT CENTRIC because the ultimate goal is to continuously improve healthcare throughout the world.

 

We certainly must develop methods consistent with the levels and abilities of our simulation participants and create environments that are open to participating, learning, exploring and discussion. But we also must provide participants with information on where they are with regards to expected performance on a continuum of the development of competence. We can not hide the truth during a debriefing because the faculty is uncomfortable with delivering critical feedback, or is so concerned that the students emotional fragility will be violated if they receive the feedback. This is a violation of our ultimate relationship with the ultimate beneficiary of healthcare simulation, the patient.

 

 

During debriefings it is incumbent upon us to make sure that students are treated fairly, treat each other fairly and help to discover things needed for improvement through creating reflections on the learning activities. We also need to make sure there is crystal clarity on expected outcomes versus perceptions of performance that are reconciled. We also must guide the debriefing process in a way that is mindful of the psychological safety of the involved. I think this can be done with adequate training, re-training and continuing practice with the art of debriefing. When we achieve this, we have arrived at Patient Centered Debriefing, and that’s a place I think we all want be.

 

 

I do believe most professionals want to know what they did well as well as what they didn’t. They are the fundamental elements of being able to reflect and improve. We need to be able to have the message delivered by either a process of self-discovery, perhaps through facilitated reflection, or at other times, but just directly providing the information. This doesn’t mean it has to be harsh, or without the feelings of the person involved carefully considered, but it does mean it has to happen with a level of deliberateness that is unequivocal. It is the true art of the debriefing to be able to lead this effort and achieve these goals.

 

Finally I’ll close with a quote from my twelve-year-old son about one of his baseball coaches, “Dad, why does coach always tell me I did a good job when I know I messed up?” What is the answer? Not sure, but I hope that the coach doesn’t change careers and become a simulation facilitator for healthcare professionals.

 

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