The clinical debriefer: is experience necessary?

Introduction Clinical debriefing (CD) has been established as a powerful tool to improve clinical outcomes and staff wellbeing. Despite this, multiple barriers to widespread implementation have been identified, most notably a perceived deficiency of skilled facilitators and a lack of debriefing experience. This raises an important question: who should lead a CD? Main body Arguments supporting the importance of experience for clinical debriefers include the perceived necessity of training for effective debriefing, the difficulties in cultivating psychological safety and the possibility of debriefings causing harm. Arguments against this viewpoint include practical limitations in accessing experienced debriefers, the availability and utility of debriefing tools and the opportunity to learn through different forms of facilitation. There is a relative paucity of research in this area, and we draw upon evidence from the simulation literature as there are key parallels between debriefers in both contexts. Conclusions In this debate, we have explored a variety of relevant considerations, although evidence is mixed and it remains unclear whether experience is necessary to facilitate CDs. We believe that for the potential of CD worldwide to be realized, compromise must be reached. For particularly challenging debriefings, such as in exceptionally distressing scenarios or critical incidents, experience may be essential. Fundamentally, we hope to have enabled readers to reach their own verdicts.