effectiveness of video-assisted debriefing versus standard oral debriefing following screen-based simulation (cyberpatient tm) training

Background: a common recommendation to develop skillful practice is to playback videos during debriefing; however, no study has addressed the advantages of such a technique. objectives: the present study aimed to compare the pedagogical effectiveness of video-assisted debriefing and oral debriefing in simulation-based training. by comparing video-assisted debriefing and traditional oral debriefing, it was hypothesized that videoassisted debriefing would improve medical students’ decision-making skills and professional attitudes. methods: this quasi-experimental study used a pretest-posttest design. the study encompassed 76 medical students in the fourth year of their seven-year training program. the participants were selected using a census and were then randomly divided into intervention (video-assisted debriefing, n = 36) and control (oral debriefing, n = 40) groups. the required data were collected using a demographic information questionnaire, the penn state college of medicine professionalism questionnaire, and lauri and salantera’s (2002) clinical decision-making questionnaire. descriptive statistics such as mean and standard deviation were used to describe the participants’ characteristics. paired t-test and independent t-test were run to compare the medical students’ clinical decision-making and professional attitude scores before and after the intervention within and between the groups. results: there was no significant difference in the medical students’ clinical decision-making skills between the two groups before the intervention (p = 0.09); however, significant differences were observed in both groups after the intervention (p < 0.001). moreover, there was no significant difference in the professional attitude of medical students between the two groups before the intervention (p = 0.03); however, there were significant differences in both groups after the intervention (p < 0.001). conclusions: the findings revealed that simulation-based training with video-assisted debriefing was more effective in developing the undergraduate medical students’ decision-making skills and promoting their professional attitudes.