863: IMPROVING COMFORT WITH EMOTIONAL DEBRIEFING IN THE PEDIATRIC INTENSIVE CARE UNIT

Introduction: Emotional debriefing is a suggested strategy to improve provider wellness in the pediatric intensive care unit (PICU). Previous research found that PICU providers are aware of the benefits of debriefing and their importance; however, most lack the formal training to lead these sessions. We designed an educational intervention to improve PICU provider knowledge and comfort facilitating emotional debriefs after traumatic or morally distressing events. Methods: Intensive care providers (e.g., faculty, fellows, charge nurses, charge respiratory therapists) were invited to a 90-minute facilitator training session. Participants were given the option to complete both a pre- and post-training survey. Questions assessed knowledge about debriefing, comfort with debriefing, and perceived barriers to debriefing. Results: Thirty-five people attended the 5 training sessions with a 100% survey completion rate. Participants included 10 fellows, 12 attendings, 12 nurses, and 1 respiratory therapist. Prior to the training, 16 participants (46%) had never facilitated a debrief. Fourteen participants (40%) were slightly or very uncomfortable with running a debrief. Following the training, 34 (97%) were somewhat or extremely comfortable with running a debrief. Before debrief training, 13 (37%) participants were very or somewhat unlikely to debrief following a patient death, and 12 (34%) were very or somewhat unlikely to debrief after caring for a morally distressing patient. After training, no respondents rated themselves as very or somewhat unlikely to debrief following either scenario. Twenty participants (57%) felt slightly or not at all knowledgeable about the goals of an emotional debrief before completing training. Following training, all respondents felt moderately, very or extremely knowledgeable about the goals of an emotional debrief. All participants reported lack of time as a barrier to debriefing. Conclusions: Emotional debrief facilitator training improved knowledge about debriefing and confidence in leading debrief sessions. Intensive care teams that utilize emotional debriefing to improve provider wellness must develop strategies to increase the number of debriefs occurring in their units, with a particular focus on alleviating time as a barrier.