Identifying and training non-technical skills for teams in acute medicine

TLDR

The aviation domain offers a useful analogy for temporary teams in acute medicine, and crew resource management training—emphasizing portable skills—has been recognized as potentially applicable to operating theatre, ICU, and emergency room teams. This study introduces the Anaesthetists Non‑Technical Skills behavioural rating system and a corresponding training course, and outlines plans to extend the program to emergency medicine teams. The rating system, derived from the aviation NOTECHS framework, served as the basis for a simulator‑based training course called Crisis Avoidance Resource Management for Anaesthetists.

Abstract

The aviation domain provides a better analogy for the ”temporary” teams that are found in acute medical specialities than industrial or military teamwork research based on established teams. Crew resource management (CRM) training, which emphasises portable skills (for whatever crew a pilot is rostered to on a given flight), has been recognised to have potential application in medicine, especially for teams in the operating theatre, intensive care unit, and emergency room. Drawing on research from aviation psychology that produced the behavioural marker system NOTECHS for rating European pilots’ non-technical skills for teamwork on the flightdeck, this paper outlines the Anaesthetists Non-Technical Skills behavioural rating system for anaesthetists working in operating theatre teams. This taxonomy was used as the design basis for a training course, Crisis Avoidance Resource Management for Anaesthetists used to develop these skills, based in an operating theatre simulator. Further developments of this training programme for teams in emergency medicine are outlined.