Community, population, and public health nurse educators use of clinical debriefing

Objective: The Next Generation NCLEX licensing examination is used to assess entry-level nurses’ ability to use clinical judgment in the care of individuals, families, and populations. An approach in developing clinical judgment is using a standardized debriefing process after a clinical experience. The purpose of this research was to examine whether community, population, and public health (CPPH) baccalaureate nurse educators received education on the use of clinical debriefing with their students and to describe the type of debriefing approaches used to transfer nursing theory into clinical practice.Methods: This study used a mixed method approach. Convenience sampling was used to conduct a descriptive survey of CPPH educators use of clinical debriefing using SurveyMonkey®. Three focus group sessions were held with participants representing a variety of BSN degree formats in nursing programs across the continental United States. These virtual meetings used the Zoom® conference platform. Each focus group was recorded with a transcription of the session. Transcriptions were evaluated using NVivo® and placed into five themes with additional subthemes.Results: The analysis indicated that CPPH BSN nurse educators lack formal training in the use of post-clinical debriefing. Educators’ debriefing approaches are not formalized or standardized across nursing programs and do not meet current best practices. Nurse educators identified barriers to debriefing with students, including geographic location, variety of clinical placements, and large numbers of students. Some nurse educators use debriefing techniques developed in non-nursing disciplines and for non-clinical debriefing situations. Focus group participants expressed interest in the development of a clinical debriefing tool for CPPH courses.Conclusions: The research demonstrates that CPPH nurse educators do not feel experientially prepared to lead debriefing. The lack of formalized education has resulted in nurse educators using debriefing methods that do not meet best practices. This could result in ineffective student development of clinical judgment.