title: Do technical skills correlate with non-technical skills in crisis resource management: a simulation study.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Both technical skills (TS) and non-technical skills (NTS) are key to ensuring patient safety in acute care practice and effective crisis management. These skills are often taught and assessed separately. We hypothesized that TS and NTS are not independent of each other, and we aimed to evaluate the relationship between TS and NTS during a simulated intraoperative crisis scenario.
  
  
  METHODS
  This study was a retrospective analysis of performances from a previously published work. After institutional ethics approval, 50 anaesthesiology residents managed a simulated crisis scenario of an intraoperative cardiac arrest secondary to a malignant arrhythmia. We used a modified Delphi approach to design a TS checklist, specific for the management of a malignant arrhythmia requiring defibrillation. All scenarios were recorded. Each performance was analysed by four independent experts. For each performance, two experts independently rated the technical performance using the TS checklist, and two other experts independently rated NTS using the Anaesthetists' Non-Technical Skills score.
  
  
  RESULTS
  TS and NTS were significantly correlated to each other (r=0.45, P<0.05).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  During a simulated 5 min resuscitation requiring crisis resource management, our results indicate that TS and NTS are related to one another. This research provides the basis for future studies evaluating the nature of this relationship, the influence of NTS training on the performance of TS, and to determine whether NTS are generic and transferrable between crises that require different TS.
authors: Department of Anaesthesiology, Kantonsspital Liestal, University of Basel, Rheinstrasse 26, Liestal, Switzerland. nriem@aol.com
authors: N
authors: N
authors: Riem
authors: S
authors: S
authors: Boet
authors: M D
authors: MD
authors: Bould
authors: W
authors: W
authors: Tavares
authors: V N
authors: VN
authors: Naik
mesh_terms: D000776:Anesthesiology / Q000379:methods*; D001145:Arrhythmias, Cardiac / Q000150:complications; D016887:Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation / Q000379:methods*; D002983:Clinical Competence / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D004630:Emergencies; D005260:Female; D006323:Heart Arrest / Q000209:etiology / Q000628:therapy; D006801:Humans; D007431:Intraoperative Complications / Q000628:therapy; D008297:Male; D017146:Models, Organizational; D015588:Observer Variation; D061214:Patient Safety / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D016544:Patient Simulation; D040841:Resource Allocation / Q000458:organization & administration*; D012189:Retrospective Studies