Developing a Trauma-Informed Psychologically Safe Debriefing Framework for Emotionally Stressful Simulation Events

When I say psychological debriefing

“…However, as psychiatrists with an interest in the research fields of both mental health and medical education, the steady creep of psychological debriefing into health care education practice concerns us. For example, frameworks specifically to aid psychological safe debriefing are now being developed in simulation as well as real‐world practice to assist learners when they encounter an emotionally stressful event 2 . Though it goes without saying that educators should be focussing on the affective components of learning (as well as the cognitive aspects), perhaps too little attention is being paid to what the evidence on debriefing outside of medical education tells us.…”

Patient Abuse, Neglect, and Exploitation: Why Physicians Need to Be Trauma-Informed

“…We learned valuable lessons by allowing the residents to provide anonymous comments via the evaluation survey. 23 For example, resident comments included how to improve using the expert's lived experience to maximize the learning benefit; how having the session at the shelter, once COVID restrictions are eased, might be more impactful; and how, since the role-playing enhanced learning, more time should be allotted to this portion of the educational session.…”

“…The role-playing scripts had a definite beginning and end to simulate how these narratives could play out in a real case scenario and gave the residents a chance to use the SMART (screen vs. ask, message, assess symptoms and danger, resources and report, treat) tool ( Appendix D ) to help guide the role-play to its conclusion. The debriefing portion adhered to principles of debriefing, 23 including establishing group norms, giving participants and observers an opportunity to reflect on the scenario, applying knowledge previously learned ( Appendix B ) to the role-playing scenarios, and allowing participants to discuss the value of this experience either verbally during the discussion or by providing written anonymous comments via the evaluation survey after the session.…”