Guat Keng Yvonne Goh¹
Han Nee Gan¹, Elaine Ching Ching Tan¹, Shin Ying Thng¹ and Peck Har Ang¹
1 SingHealth, Changi General Hospital

Working in a fast-paced and busy emergency department presents numerous challenges for healthcare professionals. Clinical event debriefing (CED) has emerged as a valuable tool to improve patient safety and enhance healthcare professional competencies. CED is a process of reviewing and reflecting on clinical events, allowing healthcare teams to analyze their performance, identify errors, and foster a culture of continuous learning through reflective practices. 

Our team, experienced in simulation-based education and inter-professional training, sought to implement CED in our emergency department. We conducted a faculty development session introducing the STOP-5 model, tailored for our department's needs. To encourage CED adoption, we displayed posters with QR codes for data collection, focusing on major trauma and pediatric resuscitation cases. 

We hypothesize that CED serves as an effective tool for providing valuable feedback to healthcare professionals on their performance. By fostering a culture of continuous learning and improvement, debriefing sessions offer a powerful platform for competency development and continuous professional growth. Participants' experiences and perceptions of the debriefing process will be carefully studied to ascertain the extent to which they find it helpful in identifying areas for improvement and increasing their confidence in managing similar clinical events in the future. 

We also aim to collect comprehensive data on the impact of CED on work processes, patient safety, and the identification and mitigation of latent safety threats. By understanding these aspects, we can demonstrate the potential of CED in enhancing overall healthcare quality. 

CED holds promise as an effective formative assessment tool for healthcare professionals. Its implementation in emergency departments and other healthcare settings could lead to improved patient safety and overall care quality. Further exploration of CED's applicability across diverse healthcare environments and professional populations is warranted to unlock its full potential in optimizing healthcare outcomes. 

References (maximum three) 

1. Kessler DO, Cheng A, Mullan PC. Debriefing in the emergency department after clinical events: a practical guide. Ann Emerg Med. 2015 Jun;65(6):690-8. doi: 10.1016/j.annemergmed.2014.10.019. Epub 2014 Nov 15. PMID: 25455910 

2. Walker CA, McGregor L, Taylor C, Robinson S. STOP5: a hot debrief model for resuscitation cases in the emergency department. Clin Exp Emerg Med. 2020 Dec;7(4):259- 266. doi: 10.15441/ceem.19.086. Epub 2020 Dec 31. PMID: 33440103; PMCID: PMC7808839. 

3. Rudolph JW, Simon R, Raemer DB, Eppich WJ. Debriefing as formative assessment: closing performance gaps in medical education. Acad Emerg Med. 2008 Nov;15(11):1010-6. doi: 10.1111/j.1553-2712.2008.00248.x. Epub 2008 Oct 20. PMID: 18945231.