Setting goals, not just roles: Improving teamwork through goal-focused debriefing

Area of Science:

• Medical Education
• Teamwork and Simulation

Background:

• The impact of goal setting in post-simulation debriefing on teamwork remains unclear.
• This study investigates the effects of group-level goals, individual-level goals, or no goals during debriefing on team performance.

Purpose of the Study:

• To determine how different goal-setting strategies in debriefing affect teamwork.
• To compare the effectiveness of individual goals versus group goals versus no goals in enhancing team performance.

Main Methods:

• Eighty-six medical students (MS3s) participated in two high-fidelity team training scenarios.
• Teams were randomized into three debriefing groups: group-level goals, individual-level goals, or no goals.
• Paired-samples t tests and ANOVA were used to analyze teamwork performance improvements.

Main Results:

• Teams setting individual goals showed a significant improvement in teamwork performance (59.8% to 76.8%, p<0.01).
• Performance improvement in the individual goals group was significantly higher than the no goals group (p<0.05).
• No significant performance improvement was observed in the group goals or no goals groups.

Conclusions:

• Learners should be encouraged to set and pursue individual goals during debriefing to enhance teamwork.
• Individual goal setting appears to be a more effective strategy for improving team performance in simulation-based training.