top of page
Search

World Debriefing Day: Two Minutes to Transform Healthcare Safety

  • 5 hours ago
  • 9 min read

By Paul C. Mullan, MD, MPH Emergency Medicine Physician with Expertise in Clinical Debriefing, Quality & Safety Affiliation: AHDQ Patient Safety Organization (AHRQ-listed PSO) Last Updated: February 12, 2026


What is World Debriefing Day?


Key Takeaways

  • When: February 22-23, 2026 (participate either day)

  • Where: Any healthcare setting worldwide—hospital, clinic, EMS, ambulatory surgery center, or community care

  • What: do one quick 2-minute clinical debriefing during your shift

  • Clinical Debriefing: a brief, structured team reflection after care to learn and improve (not blame)

  • The 2-2-2 Framework: 2-minutes | 2+ colleagues | To improve care

  • Any event qualifies: Routine admissions, discharges, procedures—not just emergencies

  • Evidence-based: Debriefing is linked to stronger team performance and reduced harm

  • Simple to start: Use the provided Plus/Delta script and end with one next-action step

  • Sign up to get more involved as an individual or organization.

World Debriefing Day is a global initiative to make clinical debriefing routine in healthcare. The date of the inaugural World Debriefing Day—2/22/2026 (or 22/2/2026 globally)—reflects the 2-2-2 framework and call to action: spend two minutes debriefing after any patient-care event, with two or more colleagues, to improve care. Since February 22, 2026, falls on a Sunday, participation extends through Monday, the 23rd, to accommodate all shift schedules.


What is a clinical debriefing?

A clinical debriefing is a brief, structured team discussion held shortly after patient care to reflect on an event and improve future care delivery.

It is not a long meeting like a morbidity and mortality conference. It is not a blame session. It is not a session focused solely on people’s emotions around an event, although it should be respectful and supportive. It is a brief discussion that can occur in real clinical work, even during busy shifts, without requiring special equipment or intensive scheduling.


Why Debriefing Matters

Healthcare is inherently complex, high-stakes, and often unpredictable. Healthcare teams work in conditions that make learning to improve care challenging: time pressure, demanding workload, interruptions, handoffs, rotating teams, and emotional load. When teams move immediately from task to task, two things often happen:

  • Near-misses and workarounds are forgotten before we can learn from them

  • Stress accumulates in individuals instead of being processed as a team.


When healthcare workers are not given the opportunity to speak up in a way that fits their busy clinical workflow, preventable harm and adverse events can occur for patients and team members alike.

Research consistently shows that brief, structured debriefings can improve clinical outcomes, team well-being, and financial savings. A meta-analysis found that debriefings were associated with a 25% improvement in team performance across a variety of outcomes. This evidence has led to recommendations from multiple healthcare organizations to advocate for debriefing after patient care, including:


Despite these guidelines and recommendations, clinical debriefing remains underutilized in practice. Barriers to debriefing include limited time due to competing clinical demands, institutional culture, concerns about psychological safety, and other factors. Given the prevalence of time constraints, this 2-2-2 framework of World Debriefing Day aims to minimize time as a barrier to debriefing.


The 2-2-2 framework

The beauty of the 2-2-2 framework is its simplicity, efficiency, and power.

  • Two minutes is short enough to be realistic even on the busiest of shifts.

  • Two or more people on the team: because diverse perspective-sharing is where the learning happens.

  • To improve: this keeps the focus on future care delivery and can reduce a blaming focus.


What types of clinical events could be debriefed?


Any clinical event, in any setting, can be debriefed. Almost all patient care involves team coordination, communication, and reliable processes to ensure consistent delivery. While the early debriefing studies described more intensive events such as cardiac arrests or intubation, both routine events and non-routine events occur daily in all settings that create opportunities to debrief, such as: Table: Routine and Non-Routine Events to consider debriefing on World Debriefing Day

Clinical Area

Routine Events

Non-Routine Events

Ambulatory Surgery Center

Pre-procedure timeout, Patient discharge

Unexpected surgical findings, Discharge delay

Behavioral Health / Psychiatry

Admission, Medication administration

Patient de-escalation, Physical restraint event

Diagnostic / Imaging Center

Patient transport, MRI study 

Contrast reaction, Claustrophobic patient

Emergency Department / Accident & Emergency

Trauma, Patient admission or discharge, Procedure

Behavioral crisis, Left without being seen

Emergency Medical Services

Patient transport, procedure

Patient deterioration, agitated patient

Infusion Center

IV access, Medication administration

Allergic reaction, Medication delay

Intensive Care Unit

Intubation, Admission process, Transport

Family meeting, cardiac arrest

Inpatient Unit

Admission process, Medication administration

Patient fall, Discharge process

Neonatal ICU

Newborn delivery, central line placement

Parent distress, Infant deterioration

Obstetrics / Labor & Delivery

Routine delivery, C-section

Postpartum hemorrhage, Shoulder dystocia

Operating Room

Surgery, OR-to-PACU handoff

Equipment malfunction, Case delay

Outpatient Clinic

Patient visit, Prescription refill

Difficult news, Patient complaint

Pediatric Unit

Admission process, Discharge teaching

Behavioral escalation, Parent conflict

Post-Anesthesia Care Unit

OR handoff, Pain management

Delayed emergence, Uncontrolled pain

Rehabilitation Unit

Therapy session, Mobility assessment

Patient fall, Delayed discharge 


For Feb 22nd & 23rd, keep it simple and don't wait for the perfect patient to debrief. Instead, discuss it with your team, and plan to debrief one of your first two patients of the day. You might be surprised by some of the key discoveries from debriefing what seemed like a "routine" case.


How long should a debrief take?

For this event, aim for a 2-minute debriefing, but allow the conversation to go longer if the moment calls for it.

A longer clinical debriefing is not always better. A longer debrief can place excessive time pressure on competing clinical demands, reducing the likelihood that debriefing becomes routine. A shorter, more focused, two-minute “micro-debrief” can help the team focus on the most relevant aspects of an event. Shorter debriefs that fit into the clinical workflow and address high-impact topics are more likely to be repeated. Frequent, effective debriefing can reinforce a strong safety culture. These effective micro-debriefings can accelerate improvement more effectively than infrequent, comprehensive (15-minute) debriefings that occur only on rare occasions. As healthcare organizations debrief more frequently, they can begin to develop high-reliability systems that further optimize the impact of debriefing.


Who should lead the debrief?


A good debrief leader is someone who can create structure and psychological safety in a busy clinical schedule. That might be a physician, nurse, tech, charge nurse, resident, unit leader, or other team member. What matters more than a leader’s role is their behavior:

  • Keeps it brief

  • Names the purpose: learning to improve, not blaming

  • Invites multiple voices

  • Determines the next step to take for any actionable items discussed


Where should a debrief happen?

Choose the closest spot where your team can speak freely without being easily overheard. You might not always need a private workroom. There may be other areas with sufficient separation from patients and visitors to hold open discussions, similar to where you already have other patient care discussions, such as:

  • Near the nurse’s station, a quiet hallway, in a workroom, or at the bedside after the patient has left.

  • Not in patient rooms (unless the patient has left already), and not in public areas where others could easily overhear sensitive details


A 2-minute debrief script (copy and use)

1) Start by setting the frame (10 seconds):

Ask your colleague(s): “Are we able to take 2 minutes right now to debrief, after treating that patient? This is a moment to reflect together so we can improve our care - not to blame anyone.”


2) Plus Comments (50 seconds):

“What went well?”


3) Delta Comments (50 seconds):

“What could we have done better?”

4) Closing (10 seconds):

“Thanks, everyone, for debriefing.”

Assign one person to take responsibility for handling, or handing off, any action items.


What can you accomplish in two minutes?


A two-minute debrief can acknowledge a colleague's quick thinking during a crisis. It might surface a near-miss, such as a bed alarm that wasn't audible at the nurse's station, before it becomes a patient fall. Your team might identify one concrete change to prevent the next workplace violence event, or name why a handoff felt smoother this time so you can repeat it tomorrow.

These micro-debriefs can create incremental gains that can compound to foster:

  • Fewer daily frustrations and workarounds

  • Less miscommunication, decreasing team conflicts

  • Smoother patient care that patients notice and appreciate

  • Problems addressed before they harm anyone

  • Safer workplaces, with less violence and incivility

  • The whole team's concerns heard and addressed

  • Pride in working somewhere that fixes problems fast

Small, frequent debriefs compound. Over time, they help create a workplace where your voice matters, chaos feels manageable, and both you and your patients are safer.

These micro-debriefs work because they reinforce our core identity as healthcare workers: we help people. Debriefing is one of the most efficient ways to help support our patients and each other. Each debrief brings us closer to the kind of team we want to be: one that learns fast, communicates needs clearly, and makes it easier to deliver safe, reliable care.


What if someone is distressed before or during the debrief?

If anyone appears distressed, stop the debrief and shift to support. You might say: “Strong reactions are normal. Let’s stop debriefing now - how can we support you?” Share available supports, such as employee assistance programs, chaplain services, or peer support.


Clinical debriefing is not a trauma treatment - if a team member needs therapeutic support, connect them with a trained professional. Teams that debrief routinely often build shared norms and psychological safety, so intense distress during a debrief is uncommon, but it can happen.


How World Debriefing Day Started

Pilots debrief after flights. Elite sports teams debrief every game. Military units debrief after every mission. These industries know that high-stakes performance requires debriefing to be integral in their workflow. Healthcare has the evidence that debriefing works, and it has recommendations from many thought leaders and associations. But debriefing in healthcare has not spread the way it has in these other high-reliability organizations - yet. Healthcare needs a rallying point to normalize debriefing as a routine part of our daily practice. The date 2/22 was chosen to align with the 2-2-2 framework: two minutes, with two or more people, to improve. It also works globally in regions that format dates as 22/2. The framework aims to be simple enough to start and valuable enough to sustain. World Debriefing Day was created by the Advancing Healthcare Debriefing Quality (AHDQ) Patient Safety Organization (PSO), an AHRQ-listed PSO dedicated to promoting clinical debriefings to improve outcomes for patients, clinical teams, and health systems. The AHDQ PSO partners with healthcare workers and organizations worldwide, drawing on expert experience supporting 80+ teams in implementing clinical debriefing programs over the past 15 years.

World Debriefing Day is strengthened by participating organizations committed to patient safety, quality improvement, teamwork, and communication. Inquire to have your group added to the list here.


Join the Movement

Participation is simple: debrief, share, and sustain.


1) Debrief

Spend two minutes debriefing, with two or more colleagues, to improve care.


2) Share

On social media, post a photo or video, share a takeaway, or tag someone who's inspired you to debrief or speak up in healthcare. Remember to protect patient privacy: no patient identifiers, tracking boards, monitors, charts, or event details that would identify someone.


3) Sustain

World Debriefing Day is on Feb 22–23, but the goal is to sustain momentum in debriefing throughout the year. As an individual, team, or unit:

  • Debrief one event per shift for the next month

  • On social media: Share what’s working and what barriers you’re encountering using #WorldDebriefingDay.

  • Stay informed: Get updates and tools here: individual form

As a hospital, group, or organization:

  • Choose one default case to debrief each day (e.g, first admission, first case)

  • Become a Participating Organization for World Debriefing Day: organization form.



Join us on 2/22: 2 minutes | 2+ people | To improve.





DISCLAIMER USE OF INFORMATION:  Content about World Debriefing Day is for educational and informational purposes only and does not constitute medical, psychological, legal, clinical, or therapeutic advice or professional services. Sponsors (AHDQ PSO & StatDebrief) are not emergency or crisis services. If you need immediate support, contact a licensed professional or a crisis service (U.S.: call/text 988; otherwise use your local emergency number).

PRIVACY & COMPLIANCE: You are responsible for complying with applicable laws and workplace policies, including HIPAA (U.S.), GDPR (E.U.), and local privacy rules. Do not post patient-identifiable information (PHI), personally identifiable information (PII)  or confidential employer/organizational information. Public posts are not secure, are not Patient Safety Work Product (PSWP), and are not submitted to AHDQ PSO.

USER-GENERATED CONTENT & THIRD-PARTY PLATFORMS: Any user posts related to World Debriefing Day are public and hosted by third-party platforms. Sponsors do not control, verify, or endorse participant content; users are responsible for their own posts. Participation is also subject to the applicable third-party platform’s terms and privacy policy.

DISCLAIMER AND LIMITATION OF LIABILITY: The content presented during World Debriefing Day is for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal, medical, financial, or professional advice. Participation is voluntary and at your own risk. To the fullest extent permitted by law, Sponsors disclaim warranties and are not liable for any direct or indirect damages whatsoever arising from participation or public posting, including psychological harm, employment issues, privacy violations, or other claims. To the fullest extent permitted by law, you agree to release and hold harmless Sponsors from any claims, damages, or liabilities arising out of or related to your participation.


MEDIA CONSENT: By participating, you consent to the use, and distribution of your name, likeness, voice and any chat or Q&A contributions in connection with World Debriefing Data, including for promotional or educational purposes, without any additional compensation. If you tag Sponsors or use #WorldDebriefingDay, you grant Sponsors a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free license to repost your content (with attribution) for campaign-related purposes, and you represent you have the rights/permissions to grant this license

 
 
 
bottom of page