Reflective debriefing to promote novice nurses' clinical judgment after high-fidelity clinical simulation: a pilot test.

Background: Novice nurses are increasingly beginning their career paths in critical care areas, where they are expected to care for patients whose lives are potentially threatened. They are unable to benefit from years of experience to facilitate their clinical decisions. Reflection after simulation could possibly improve nurses' clinical judgment in complex situations.

Design: An educational project was conducted to pilot-test a teaching intervention, which combined reflective debriefing with a simulated critical care experience.

Method: Five nurses beginning in an intensive care unit participated in the pilot test. Their perception of their learning and satisfaction with the reflective debriefing and the simulation were collected using open-ended questionnaires. A clinical nurse educator, a faculty member and the first author participated in a group discussion to review the time plan and the affective components of the teaching intervention.

Results: Participants reported that the reflective debriefing helped them understand their cognitive processes during the simulation and contributed to clinical judgment development and to their care prioritization and assessment capacities. Observers reported the time plan was adequate and that attention to participants' negative feelings was necessary.

Conclusion: The results of this pilot test provide preliminary information that reflective debriefing may be a safe and potentially effective way for novice critical care nurses to learn from a clinical experience and enhance clinical judgment.