Development of a post-simulation debriefing intervention to prepare nurses and nursing students to care for deteriorating patients

Abstract

To provide optimal care, nurses need to be prepared to recognize signs and symptoms of patient deterioration so they can obtain assistance from appropriate respondents and initiate rescue interventions when needed. In this paper, we describe the development of a post-simulation educational intervention aimed at improving nurses' and nursing students' recognition and response to patient deterioration. This intervention takes the form of a debriefing after a simulated patient deterioration experience.

Following the Medical Research Council's guidance on complex interventions, we reviewed empirical studies of existing educational interventions for content, teaching strategies, and outcomes, as well as for frameworks, theoretical underpinnings, and rationale. Based on those results, we reviewed theoretical literature (Tanner's clinical judgment model and Dewey's theory of experiential learning) that might inform our understanding of our intervention's intended effect (learning outcomes) and of the mechanisms by which the intervention could lead to it. Integrating results from the empirical and theoretical phases helped us define the new intervention's rationale and develop its components according to relevant standards of best practices. The resulting educational intervention, REsPoND, consists in a reflective debriefing after a patient deterioration simulation. It will be tested in an upcoming mixed methods study.