Healthcare Simulation Standards of Best Practice™

Expert’s Corner: Healthcare Simulation Standards

Healthcare Simulation Standards of Best Practice™ (INACSL)

These debriefing standards were developed for in-person debriefing, however, they can be modified and applied to virtual debriefing.

Healthcare Simulation Standards of Best Practice™ (INACSL, 2021) modified for virtual debriefing note that:

• It is essential that debriefing be led by someone skilled in the process.
• Planning the debriefing style is part of the simulation design phase.
• Debriefing needs to be conducted in an environment where learners can safely and confidentially share their experiences and learning.
• A debriefing framework should be used as presented later in this chapter.
• If the facilitator is not present during the enactment of the virtual simulation, the person moderating the debrief should have in-depth knowledge of the virtual simulation and all possible decision-making points.
• If learners conduct the virtual simulation asynchronously (or independently), and learner analytics are available, the debriefing facilitator can use them in the debrief by asking learners to refer to their individual analytics, and/or by reviewing the analytics prior to the debrief.

Analytics

When using virtual simulation there are data (analytics) that are automatically collected in many virtual simulations that can be used for learning. Analytics provide evident of the learner’s actions and decision points. Upon completing a simulation, learners can typically review a summary of the data and use it to identify strengths and knowledge gaps. This information can assist learners to debrief their experience and guide the facilitator in focusing the debriefing discussion. For example, if most learners made a poor decision regarding prioritizing emergency actions for a patient with asthma, this would be a content area to review in the debriefing or in class. When choosing a simulation, it is important to determine what analytics are available and how you plan to use them.