Getting Started With Debriefing for Meaningful Learning

•Debriefing for Meaningful Learning© uses a consistent but iterative process of debriefing to model reflection.•Challenging taken-for-granted assumptions helps students learn to think like a nurse.•Using reflection-in-action, reflection-on-action, and reflection-beyond-action facilitates development of clinical reasoning.

Debriefing for Meaningful Learning© (DML) is a method of debriefing that can be used in simulation environments and other clinical settings to foster student's reflective thinking and learning. It has been used successfully with prelicensure nursing students, graduate nursing students, and interdisciplinary health care students throughout the nursing curriculum with positive learning outcomes. This method can be challenging to learn because it uses Socratic questioning and principles of active learning to uncover thinking associated with actions, but once learned, DML can be a model for reflective thinking that students can use to develop clinical reasoning and become reflective practitioners. Moreover, DML challenges taken-for-granted assumptions in an iterative yet consistent process of group dialog that students can use long into their practice. This article describes how faculty can get started using DML and demonstrates the iterative process of the method with examples from simulation debriefing.