What happens in a debrief?

Every simulation scenario is followed by a debrief. This is when we discuss what happened in the simulation and work through the events to learn from them.

A debrief is not somebody pointing a finger at you and listing all the things you did wrong; it is a facilitator-lead discussion that helps you to identify your strengths and weaknesses, and helps you to plan ways of improving in the future. We also use the debrief to help you recognise professional behaviours that you perform well or to recognise progress in your skill development.

You will be asked about what you were feeling and thinking during the scenario to gain a better understanding of your performance.

You might also be asked about what you would do the same or differently next time, or what steps you need to take to improve your performance. 

As an example, you might discover that you are more likely to make mistakes when it is noisy, or when you are tired. Now that you know this, you can take extra care when you are in these situations so that you are less likely to make a mistake in the real world.

If you were not happy with your performance you might feel uncomfortable in the debrief. This is a normal reaction and it gets better as you have more experience with simulation. Rather than focusing on the negatives you should think about how you can learn from the experience.

If you still feel uncomfortable with your performance after the debrief, ask to speak to the facilitator privately. The last thing we want is for learners to feel embarrassed or to have a negative simulation experience.

Simulations are designed to be a safe learning environment so we like to make sure that you are not left feeling overwhelmed by the experience.