title: Reliable assessment of general surgeons' non-technical skills based on video-recordings of patient simulated scenarios.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Nontechnical skills are essential for safe and efficient surgery. The aim of this study was to evaluate the reliability of an assessment tool for surgeons' nontechnical skills, Non-Technical Skills for Surgeons dk (NOTSSdk), and the effect of rater training.
  
  
  METHODS
  A 1-day course was conducted for 15 general surgeons in which they rated surgeons' nontechnical skills in 9 video recordings of scenarios simulating real intraoperative situations. Data were gathered from 2 sessions separated by a 4-hour training session.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Interrater reliability was high for both pretraining ratings (Cronbach's α = .97) and posttraining ratings (Cronbach's α = .98). There was no statistically significant development in assessment skills. The D study showed that 2 untrained raters or 1 trained rater was needed to obtain generalizability coefficients >.80.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The high pretraining interrater reliability indicates that videos were easy to rate and Non-Technical Skills for Surgeons dk easy to use. This implies that Non-Technical Skills for Surgeons dk (NOTSSdk) could be an important tool in surgical training, potentially improving safety and quality for surgical patients.
authors.affiliation: Danish Institute for Medical Simulation, Capital Region of Denmark and University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark. Electronic address: lene.spanager@regionh.dk.
authors.forename: Lene
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Spanager
authors.forename: Randi
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Beier-Holgersen
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Dieckmann
authors.forename: Lars
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Konge
authors.forename: Jacob
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Rosenberg
authors.forename: Doris
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Oestergaard
mesh_terms: D003142:Communication; D005260:Female; D013502:General Surgery / Q000193:education / Q000592:standards*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D019300:Medical Errors / Q000517:prevention & control; D016544:Patient Simulation; D011361:Professional Competence; D011364:Professional Practice; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D014741:Video Recording
keywords: Assessment; Nontechnical skills; Operating room; Surgeon; Surgery; Training