Promoting hot debriefing in an emergency department (16 August 2020)

Summary

Debriefing is a process of communication that takes place between a team following a clinical case. It identifies errors as well as areas of excellence for both teams and individuals. This article in BMJ Open Quality describes a quality improvement project in an emergency department in Ireland, which aimed to introduce hot debriefing following all cardiac arrests.

Content

The authors found that introducing hot debriefs led to improvements in cardiac arrest care including practice changes in resus room equipment, development of practitioners’ non-technical skills and an improvement in the department’s educational activities.

95% of participants felt the hot debriefing tool duration was ‘just right’, while 100% felt the process helped with their clinical practice, and 90% felt they benefited psychologically from the process.