Abstract
Background: Debriefing is used in clinical settings to support interprofessional staff, improve processes, and identify educational needs. Nurses who lead debriefing sessions are empowered to improve processes.
Problem: Nurse leaders identified the need for debriefing outside the critical care areas due to the rising acuity levels.
Approach: Two nurse leaders developed a debriefing initiative in one urban teaching hospital following rapid responses, codes, and stressful situations. Nurses developed a Debriefing Facilitation Guide to collect qualitative aspects of clinical emergencies to improve processes, education, and team dynamics.
Outcomes: Following each debriefing session, we deductively purposively coded the qualitative data into 3 a priori themes: the American Heart Association's team dynamics, process improvement, and educational opportunities. We identified opportunities for improvement for these themes during our first 54 debriefing sessions.
Conclusions: Following each debriefing session, the debriefing nurse leader intervened on all educational and process improvement opportunities identified and facilitated positive team dynamics.