Effectiveness of Debriefing towards Healthcare Professionals’ Nontechnical Skills: A Critical Review / Jurnal Sains Kesihatan Malaysia

ABSTRACT

@#The importance of nontechnical skills among healthcare professionals is gaining widespread recognition as criticalelements complementing technical skills that are used to improve patients’ safety. These skills are typically acquiredthrough simulation training which has emerged as an effective way to complement clinical training. Effective simulationrequires structure and effective debriefing methods to enhance its learning outcome. In previous literature, evidence of theeffectiveness of healthcare simulation was available but studies evaluating debriefing method(s) remain sparse. In thispaper, the effectiveness of debriefing methods in eight studies on the acquisition of nontechnical skills among healthcareprofessionals is reviewed. Articles published from 1st January 2016 across three different databases were referred to. Theresults of the review show a statistically significant improvement in the performance of nontechnical and technical skillsacross different professionals through various methods of debriefing. Nontechnical skills such as teamwork, effectivecommunication, decision-making, and situational awareness have improved significantly. In addition, integration ofrealism in simulation learning has begun to emerge as an effective technique of providing a real world experience.However, there was lack of detailed information on the length and type of debriefing conducted in the studies. Thesemethods clearly require further research since the key to successful simulation learning is through debriefing which isthe heart of simulation.