Assessment of anesthetist’s non-technical skills in Iranian hospitals

<strong>Background: </strong>Safe performance and patient safety are two important issues in the delivery of healthcare services. Non-technical skills are necessary for safe performance of anesthesiologists in the operating room. This study aimed to assess the anesthetists’ non-technical skills in Iranian hospitals.<br /> <strong>Methods:</strong> This cross-sectional study was conducted on 38 anesthetists working in orthopedic surgery wards of two hospitals in 2019. The data were collected using the Anesthetist’s Non-Technical Skills (ANTS) system, which included four domains, namely task management, teamwork, situation awareness, and decision-making. The anesthetists were assessed by a trained observer via observing and recording the events during surgeries.<br /> <strong>Results</strong><strong>:</strong> The mean score of ANTS was 10.12±1.66 out of 16. Among the four skills, the highest and lowest mean scores were related to “task management” (2.94 out of 4) and “decision-making” (2.26 out of 4), respectively. Work experience showed a significant positive relationship with “decision-making” (p=0.008, r=0.974). However, higher education level was not associated with improved anesthesiology skills.<br /> <strong>Conclusion</strong><strong>:</strong> The quality of non-technical skills was below the acceptable level in the studied anesthetists. Thus, it is recommended that the anesthetists’ skills should be improved through educational and political interventions.

Abstract licence: CC BY

A person counts once a day per paper. We keep no cookie and no address: a reader is a hash that changes every day. Any month under five reads shows no number.