Nurse educators' perceptions about structured debriefing in clinical simulation.

doi: 10.5480/13-1190.1Debriefing is a collaborative learning experience in which reciprocal learning occurs between faculty and student and among students in a safe environment. During the debriefing process, students discuss simulation events, respond to questions, support one another, and work together to make sense of what happened in the simulation scenario and why. Students also become aware of issues in the scenario that they were not aware of and reflect upon how they can improve.In order to achieve the goals of debriefing, debriefing is best accomplished using a structured method. Structured debriefing is a systematic process with a specific focus. The facilitator guides students to reflect on their performance during a clinical simulation, to identify what went right and what went wrong and how they would change their practice in the future. The process of structured debriefing is intended to bring about discussion and reflection.Most studies conducted on debriefing as part of a simulated clinical learning experience have focused on student outcomes (Mariani, Cantrell, Meakim, Prieto, & Dreifuerst, 2013; Shinnick, Woo, Horwich, & Steadman, 2011). Few studies have investigated how faculty view the overall benefits and limitations of debriefing as they relate to student learning. In an exhaustive search of the nursing and allied health literature, only one published study was located on nurse faculty perspectives about debriefing as part of simulated leaning experiences.Brackenreng (2004) conducted qualitative, descriptive phone interviews with nine nurse educators about the importance of debriefing. All educators identified that debriefing, as part of an experiential learning exercise, was very important. No additional studies were found in the literature that further investigated this phenomenon.Neill and Wotton (2011) conducted a review of published literature to analyze the use of debriefing in simulation and to recommend areas for future research. According to Neill and Wotton, there are important questions about whether debriefing practices contribute to optimal learning for students, and whether faculty view debriefing as an optimal teaching strategy that has a positive influence on students' clinical judgment and performance.The current study explores faculty insights about debriefing as a teaching-learning strategy. The overall perceptions of faculty about the advantages and disadvantages of structured debriefing in undergraduate nursing education are discussed.METHODThis pilot study used a qualitative descriptive design. Four focus groups were conducted with 22 nurse educators from seven accredited schools of nursing in the mid-Atlantic region of the United States; six schools were baccalaureate programs and one was an associate degree program.Demographic data of the participants included the following: age range 35 to 73 years (M = 52.35); range of teaching experience 4 to 52 years (M = 19.4); and years of structured debriefing 1 to 7 years (M = 3.47). The educational preparation of participants was as follows: 3 were BSN prepared (one had an MBA and two were working toward their master's degrees in nursing); 11 had master's preparation; and 8 were doctorally prepared. Faculty roles ranged from clinical adjunct professor to associate professor; one participant was a simulation lab specialist and three were simulation lab directors.The focus groups lasted on average 60 minutes. Each focus group had participants who were onsite at the sponsoring institution as well as one to five participants who participated via conference call. Participants were asked to respond to questions that reflected the study's stated aims.The sessions were recorded using the Go To Meeting platform, and the oral transcripts were sent to a professional transcription service. Transcripts were compared to the verbal recordings for accuracy. After all study team members conducted a content analysis of the transcripts, summaries were collated by the principal investigator. …