The role of debriefing in simulation-based learning.

The aim of this paper is to critically review what is felt to be important about the role of debriefing in the field of simulation-based learning, how it has come about and developed over time, and the different styles or approaches that are used and how effective the process is. A recent systematic review of high fidelity simulation literature identified feedback (including debriefing) as the most important feature of simulation-based medical education.1 Despite this, there are surprisingly few papers in the peer-reviewed literature to illustrate how to debrief, how to teach or learn to debrief, what methods of debriefing exist and how effective they are at achieving learning objectives and goals. This review is by no means a systematic review of all the literature available on debriefing, and contains information from both peer and nonpeer reviewed sources such as meeting abstracts and presentations from within the medical field and other disciplines versed in the practice of debriefing such as military, psychology, and business. It also contains many examples of what expert facilitators have learned over years of practice in the area. We feel this would be of interest to novices in the field as an introduction to debriefing, and to experts to illustrate the gaps that currently exist, which might be addressed in further research within the medical simulation community and in collaborative ventures between other disciplines experienced in the art of debriefing.