Post event team reflection (PETR)
What is a post event team reflection (PETR)?
A post event team reflection (PETR), sometimes referred to as a ‘cold debrief’ or ‘psychological debrief’, is a one-off meeting that can be offered by the Staff Psychology Service (SPS) to teams or staff groups following a highly stressful, critical or distressing event at work. Sessions follow a facilitated peer-support structure where colleagues are invited to share their experiences, discuss the impact of the event together, learn more about common reactions to distressing events and where further support is available.
A PETR session is not a group therapy intervention and is not offered as part of any operational review or formal investigation.
The PETR sessions offered by the Staff Psychology Service are based on Critical Incident Stress Management (CISM) protocols.
Who can attend the PETR session?
Anyone impacted by the event can attend. It is important that attendance is voluntary and no one should be made to attend. Ideally sessions are scheduled to enable the maximum number of staff who want to attend, to do so. Where possible, we encourage teams to consider offering shift swaps or time off in lieu to support attendance.
How can a PETR be helpful?
A PETR can help to manage distress, reduce anxiety and promote peer support after a distressing event. It can foster a sense of safety, calm and hope within the team, promote team cohesion and build resilience, contributing to a supportive and collaborative work environment.
Feedback from staff who have previously attended PETRs include:
- ‘Excellent session. Very helpful.’
- ‘It was a safe space to talk and express myself and emotions from the event.’
How soon after an event should we schedule a PETR to take place?
A PETR is typically offered between 3 and 28 days after an event occurs.
Is there anything that needs to happen prior to a PETR session being run?
In order to run the session safely, we will ask a senior clinician in the referring team to brief us about the circumstances of the event and provide an outline of events in advance of the session.
It would also be important for the Staff Psychology Service to know if there is an investigation being held, to help us plan for the session.
How much time will the session take?
PETR sessions typically last 1.5–2 hours. The Staff Psychology Service will agree the time required with a senior clinician in the referring team, based on the circumstances surrounding the event and the number of staff likely to attend.
Who will let staff know that the session is taking place?
The invitation to attend a PETR should be shared by a senior clinician in the referring team. The Staff Psychology Service can provide a (editable) template email to support with this process on request.
Will the session be offered face-to-face or online?
We recommend that where possible sessions are run face-to-face. However, they can be run online according to team preference and need. Unfortunately, we are not able to offer hybrid sessions.
Where online sessions take place, we ask that staff each have their own log in, and attend from separate computers, to support the group experience and safe running of the session.
Where will face-to-face sessions take place?
The Staff Psychology team will come to your site to facilitate the session. It is the responsibility of the referring team to organise a venue. There are bookable group spaces on both hospital sites if a local room is not available. The Staff Psychology Service can provide more information about bookable rooms on request.
Who do I contact to arrange the PETR?
Please email the Staff Psychology Service on staffpsychchelwest@nhs.net.