Strategies to encourage participation in debrief sessions with nursing students for whom English is an additional language: A qualitative study

Abstract

Background End-of-day debriefs are reported to offer students opportunities to reflect and consolidate learning. However, there is little evidence about how clinical facilitators encourage student participation that leads to refection and learning, particularly in debrief sessions with linguistically diverse students. Aim This research investigated how the pedagogic practices of clinical facilitators enabled or constrained student participation during debrief. Design This study used an ethnographic approach combined with linguistic analysis of audio recordings of debrief in two metropolitan hospitals in Australia. Results The study found that several key factors contributed to student participation during debrief. Factors included: establishing a space that offered visual and aural privacy; using strategies that encouraged student talk; and adopting roles of expert teacher, facilitator, clinical expert, and therapeutic agent. Conclusion Conducting debrief in appropriate settings and adopting strategies and roles that encourage student talk can lead to opportunities for students to reflect on their day, and for facilitators to make judgements about students' knowledge. Impact Facilitators can enable student participation by using spaces that offer physical and aural privacy for debrief, focusing on knowledge within students’ scope of practice, and using communication strategies that encourage talk.