Become an After Action Review Conductor
Join our next highly-rated one-day training course on how to conduct After Action Reviews (AAR), taking place in London on 18 July 2025.
Our engaging and highly experiential course explores:
- why AAR is so valuable in today’s NHS
- where AAR fits with incident investigation, debriefing, and other approaches
- how other organisations are using AAR
- when AAR isn’t appropriate
- what happens before, during and after AAR? The practical and the psychological components
- how to make the AAR ground rules work for you and the participants.
Engaging and interactive format
Each delegate will participate in four AARs based on a team exercise and have the opportunity to conduct an AAR. Filming and playback of some of these team AARs will support skill development and rapid knowledge acquisition.
What is after action review?
After Action Review (AAR) is a highly adaptable and useful approach, originally developed by the US Army. It can be used effectively for learning from positive or challenging actions, for example, a situation where the outcomes fell short of expectations. The After Action Review approach brings people together for a safe, structured and effective review of the event.
The aims of AARs
- Identify and extend learning so that individuals, teams and organisations can continuously improve
- Understand what worked well and how that can be sustained
- Support cohesive and transparent team working
Regular AARs contribute to
- The rapid transfer of acquired wisdom
- A culture of openness and honesty
- Implicit knowledge being made explicit
- Individual and team resilience
What else do I need to know?
The course is suitable for anyone with a leadership or line management role. Clinical and non-clinical staff are trained together to increase learning through the sharing of perspectives and experiences.
AARs are promoted as one of the key learning tools in the NHS England guidance: responding proportionately to patient safety incidents, which is part of the new Patient Safety Incident Response Framework (PSIFR).
Get a taster of AAR at NHS ConfedExpo 2025
Our team is delivering an interactive session with senior NHS trust leaders at this year’s NHS ConfedExpo conference – if you are attending the event, why not join us to get a taster of AAR?
Session title: Expectations vs actions: the AAR approach to patient safety and continuous improvement.
Date and time: 11 June 2025, 09:30 – 10:30
Location: Exchange 8-10
Link for more info: View the ConfedExpo agenda.
To request full information and pricing, or to be added to our wait list for future sessions, please contact our AAR team on: rf-tr.tphc-communication@nhs.net.
TPHC has trained hundreds of AAR conductors across England. To learn more about our After Action Review expertise and service, please view our AAR page here.