Teledebriefing in Medical Simulation

Excerpt

The term teledebriefing describes a process in which learners who are participating in a simulation scenario undergo debriefing with a facilitator located at an off-site location. The concept of educating or training learners at an off-site location is a relatively new niche in the field of medical simulation, called telesimulation. Specifically, telesimulation is a process by which telecommunication and simulation resources are utilized to provide education, training, and/or assessment to learners at an off-site location. Although literature exists describing the use of simulation and telecommunication resources for medical education, there had not been a unifying definition for the term telesimulation until recently. In 2016, a new comprehensive and unifying definition was introduced to the simulation community at the International Meeting on Simulation in Healthcare that encompasses all the areas utilizing telecommunication and simulation resources for education & training had been used in the past while allowing for future growth in all learning domains.

Telesimulation has seen rapid growth in the last several years and has been implemented in many areas, including (but not limited to) pediatric resuscitation, surgery, anesthesia, nursing, and emergency medicine. The benefits of using telesimulation in medical education are many and include the ability to education and train learners at an off-site location; the ability to assess learners at an off-site location eliminates distance and time barriers to content delivery, allows for inter-institutional networking/collaboration, and can provide significant cost savings to individuals, programs, and institutions.

In a simulation, debriefing is often considered to be the most crucial component and is the time when a majority of the learning occurs. Using cameras, microphones, and basic videoconferencing software, telesimulation allows learners to connect to instructors at an off-site location. Teledebriefing involves a faculty member in a remote location, who through using videoconferencing technology, provides feedback while watching the simulation in real-time. Teledebreifing in telesimulation allows the conferring of the benefits of simulation beyond the walls of simulation centers.