DEBRIEFING AND EVALUATION
A debriefing conference lasting approximately 20 minutes provides all participants with the opportunity to dialogue about the content and process of the simulation. In our experience, students are eager to reflect on their thoughts, feelings, and behaviors, and to examine specific elements that might help or hinder their ability to provide care for themselves and others in high-stress clinical encounters. This is also a time for faculty to communicate the importance of each action, as part of an entire sequence of actions, in addressing and resolving a clinical situation. The debriefing and evaluation period is well suited for faculty sharing of past psychiatric emergency encounters and for appropriate self-disclosure about his or her performance at an earlier period of professional development. This kind of sharing accentuates faculty commitment to convey presence, attention, interest, and knowledge with students engaged in the crisis simulation. Further, faculty storytelling may highlight the idea of a lifelong process of professional development, rather than points of completion (Higgins, 1996; Kowsowski, 1995).