Improving Culture of Safety using Structured Clinical Debriefing among Nursing Students

Debriefing is considered a critical element in healthcare education. Although an abundance of research has been conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of debriefing during simulation, no studies have compared the effectiveness of structured debriefing in promoting clinical safety during clinical rotation. This quantitative quasi-experimental ex-post facto design study aimed to examine the causal relationship between structured debriefing and the promotion of safety during clinical practices in healthcare settings. Participants consisted of 149 senior undergraduate nursing students from the associate-degree nursing program. A quasi-experimental ex-post-facto research design was utilized. The study compared the archival data of students’ exit HESI exam scores for senior undergraduate nursing students who attended traditional debriefing sessions with students who attended structured debriefing sessions during clinical rotation. Hypothesis testing for the research question was performed using one-way ANOVA, and there was sufficient evidence to reject the null hypothesis. There were no significant differences between the environment, concept safety, and QSEN groups. The one-way ANOVA results illustrated a statistically significant positive difference in exit HESI exam sub-scores safety components among nursing students who participated in structured debriefing sessions compared to nursing students who participated in traditional debriefing sessions during clinical rotation. The study results could help nurse educators re-design the nursing curriculum and use structured debriefing as a teaching strategy in the undergraduate nursing curriculum to educate students regarding the promotion of clinical safety in healthcare settings.