Metacognition in Teams: Thematic Analysis of an Interprofessional Healthcare Simulation

Abstract

Metacognition refers to a person’s ability to understand and regulate their thinking and learning. For students, metacognitive skills increase awareness of their thought processes. These skills can impact how new and old information is processed and stored in memory and how new and old information is accessed or applied. This research study focuses on identifying metacognitive themes that emerged during debriefing sessions following an interprofessional healthcare simulation which used standardized patients.

Teams of health professional students from eight disciplines collaborated to assess and care for a standardized patient in a simulated environment. Following each simulation session, student teams debriefed their experiences and learning outcomes. Debriefing conversations from four independent teams were transcribed and common metacognitive themes were determined by consensus.

The themes that emerged were: 1) Collaboration, 2) Peer-to-peer learning, 3) Problem-Solving, and 4) Self-Reflection. Together, these themes suggested that participating students applied metacognitive processes during the team-based simulation session debriefs.

Metacognition and metacognitive ability are important learning tools that can be incorporated into interprofessional learning environments through instructional and facilitation strategies. Interprofessional team simulations with standardized patients  provide an optimal activity for encouraging critical discourse and other metacognitive processes.