Debriefing nontechnical skills in healthcare simulation: A facilitators guide

O'Dea, Angela, Byrne, Dara, & O'Connor, Paul. (2024). Debriefing nontechnical skills in healthcare simulation: A facilitators guide: University of Galway and Irish Centre for Applied Patient Safety and Simulation (ICAPSS).

Abstract

It has been suggested that facilitators often find it challenging to observe and debrief nontechnical skills [1]. Nontechnical skills are the cognitive, personal resource, and social skills that complement a healthcare worker’s technical ability, and are crucial to safe and effective team performance [2]. This guide will provide: (i) a brief overview of the nontechnical skills that are particularly important for healthcare practitioners, (ii) common issues associated with each skill that are observed during simulation training, and (iii) examples of questions facilitators can ask about these nontechnical skills during the debriefing. The nontechnical skills that will be covered in this guide include: • Situation awareness • Decision making • Communication • Teamworking • Leadership • Managing stress This guide provides a brief introduction to nontechnical skills and how to debrief them. For guidance on debriefing and healthcare simulation more broadly, we suggest reading O’Connor et al’s [3] introductory text on healthcare simulation. If you are interested in human factors more broadly, we suggest reading O’Connor & O’Dea’s [4] guide to human factors in healthcare. At the end of each section we have identified particular issues –related to each non technical skill - that may occur during a team simulation event, that facilitators can look out for. Additionally we present potential questions you might use to open a discussion on these issues during the debriefing. This is not intended to be an exhaustive list of possible issues and questions, and you may only cover one or two issues on each skill. Similarly, you are unlikely to cover every nontechnical skill during a debrief. A summary of the points to look out for during the scenario, and accompanying questions, for all of the nontechnical skills is provided in the appendix at the end of this document.

Publisher

University of Galway and Irish Centre for Applied Patient Safety and Simulation (ICAPSS)

Rights

Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International

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Collections

General Practice (Reports)