Debriefing-Focused Educational Interventions in Simulation-Based Health Professions Education: A Systematic Review of...

Simulation-based education in health professions training relies on debriefing to consolidate learning and develop non-technical skills, yet many facilitators have limited formal preparation. The aim of this systematic review was to describe debriefing-focused faculty development interventions, examine how their effects on debriefing quality have been assessed, and synthesize reported faculty- and learner-level outcomes.

Systematic review conducted according to PRISMA 2020. PubMed, Web of Science, and Scopus were searched through November 2025. Eligible studies reported debriefing-focused educational interventions in simulation-based health professions education and at least one outcome related to debriefing quality, faculty outcomes, or learner outcomes. Study selection, data extraction, and Newcastle-Ottawa Scale framework appraisal were performed in duplicate.

Forty-eight studies met inclusion criteria. Most were published from 2016 onward and were predominantly non-randomized. Workshops were the most common intervention format, followed by broader faculty development programs and train-the-trainer models. Explicit use of named debriefing frameworks or structured assessment tools was uncommon. Across the included studies, faculty development was often associated with improvements in debriefing quality, educator confidence, and perceived preparedness, whereas learner outcomes were reported less consistently. Methodological quality was variable but often acceptable within the constraints of educational research.

Debriefing-focused faculty development appears to be associated with improvement in proximal educator outcomes and, in many studies, debriefing quality in simulation-based health professions education. However, the evidence remains heterogeneous, and learner-level, practice-level, and patient-level effects are less clearly established. Future work should emphasize longitudinal faculty development, validated assessment tools, stronger study designs, and broader representation across settings.