Impact of a simulation-based education approach for health sciences: demo, debrief, and do.

Background: Skill-based practice (e.g., communication skills) is important for individuals to incorporate into students' learning and can be challenging in large classes. Simulation-based education (SBE) is a method where students can learn and practice skills in a safe environment to use in real world settings with assistance of peer coaching. The COVID-19 pandemic presented challenges to providing students with sufficient SBE. The purpose of this paper is to: a.) describe a SBE approach for health coaching referred to as "Demo, Debrief, and Do" (DDD), b.) discuss how this approach became important in COVID-19 classroom experiences, c.) describe the impact of DDD activity on students in a health sciences curriculum. DDD is a collaborative activity where graduate health coaching students demonstrate coaching skills, debrief their demonstration, and support undergraduate students to demonstrate (or do) their own coaching skills in a small virtual online setting.

Methods: Qualitative feedback from 121 undergraduate students enrolled in 3 sections of a behavior change strategies course and quantitative surveys to examine their confidence in applying the skills and overall satisfaction with DDD were gathered.

Results: The overall average confidence level following the lab was 31.7 (0-35). The average satisfaction level following the lab was 23.3 (0-25 range). The most common highlight of this DDD experience described was observing the coaching demonstration (i.e., demo), followed by the feedback (i.e., debrief), and the practice (i.e., do).

Conclusion: The (DDD) simulation approach fulfilled an educational need during the COVID 19 pandemic and filled a gap in offering SBE opportunities for both graduate and undergraduate students while learning effective client-communication skills health coaching delivery.