Differences in Debriefing Practices in Nursing Education: Instructor-Led and Peer-Led

Simulation is utilized in many trades to provide a safe learning environment. Healthcare has adopted simulation training as a safe learning tool to allow students to practice skills and prepare for situations in the clinical setting. Simulation has been shown to be effective in eliciting problem-solving skills, critical-thinking skills, and team collaboration. Debriefing is one of the most important learning practices and takes place after the simulation is completed to stimulate further learning and reflection for the participant to gather feedback on their performance. The piece of simulation education that appears to be lacking is the research in debriefing techniques. The clinical significance is that, in nursing and in all of academia, all activities must be geared toward optimizing student learning outcomes (SLOs). Since the incorporation of simulation into nursing education is a relatively new practice, there isn’t ample evidence that supports whether one debriefing method is more effective than another. There has been some research that explores instructor-led debriefing but there is inadequate information about peer-led debriefing (Waznonis, 2016, Dufrene, 2013). A small amount of research supports that peer-led reflection engages students in their own learning process and instills a sense of responsibility in knowledge acquisition (Spiller, 2012). Purpose: This project will explore the differences in debriefing between instructor-led and peer-led techniques. Method: A group of students will participate in a simulation scenario and then debrief with an instructor and then the same group will participate in another scenario and debrief through a peer-led group discussion. There will be a total of 30 students in the course who will be asked to participate and the students will take part in the simulation scenarios one day a week in groups of five to six students. The data collection will take place over five to six weeks. Results: Satisfaction with debriefing will be evaluated using the Debriefing Assessment for Simulation in Healthcare (DASH) questionnaire. The results will be calculated using the Mann-Whitney U test. Conclusions: to be determined later. Projected completion date of this project is August 2017.