Role of debriefing and feedback in facilitating learning through simulation-based medical education

Abstract

Clinical skills training has been acknowledged as one of the crucial domains of medical students' training and plays an important role in aiding them to become competent health-care personnel. The inclusion of simulation in medical curriculum has emerged as the approach to provide opportunities to undergraduate students to practice, learn, and assess skills in controlled settings and that too without harming the patients. Although mere participation in a simulation exercise might result in learning, the given feedback ascertains the attainment of the learning objectives. The conduction of the debriefing session after the simulation exercise is one of the most common ways to deliver feedback and it simultaneously gives the teacher an opportunity to understand the knowledge, skills, and attitude of the student, which contributed to the performance of the student in the simulation exercise. In conclusion, the components of feedback and debriefing are critical to ensure effective learning in simulation-based medical education. Thus, it is essential to plan for a feedback session and also train the teachers in the skills of administering feedback and debriefing and all the medical institutions implementing simulation-based education should strengthen the feedback element.