Non-Technical Skills Assessment
Current Projects
Surgeons' non-technical skills (NOTSS)
Project lead: Prof Rhona Flin - Tel: 01224-272341
Jointly funded by the Royal College of Surgeons (Edinburgh) and NHS Education Scotland, this project (2003 - 2006) identified the non-technical skills (eg, decision making, teamworking, communication) necessary for effective surgical practice. A behavioural marker system to support training and development has been developed, and the NOTSS system is currently being trialled in Scotland.
Scrub practitioners' non-technical skills (SPLINTS)
Project leads: Prof Rhona Flin and Dr Lucy Mitchell. Email: l.mitchell@abdn.ac.uk - Tel: 01224-273212
Jointly funded by NHS Education Scotland (2007-2009) and the Scottish Funding Council (2009-2011, this project has identified the essential non-technical skillls for safe and effective scrub practitioner (nurse, technician) performance and developed a behavioural rating tool for training and assessing those skills. The main skill categories in the taxonomy are: Situation Awareness, Communication and Teamwork, Task Management. A reliability study is currently being run to test the psychometric properties and usability of the SPLINTS taxonomy.
Anaesthetists' non-technical skills (ANTS)
Project leads: Prof Rhona Flin, (School of Psychology), Drs Ronnie Glavin, Nikki Maran (Scottish Clinical Simulator Centre), and Dr Rona Patey (Aberdeen Royal Infirmary). For further email: r.flin@abdn.ac.uk - Tel: 01224-272341
Originally funded by NHS Education Scotland, we have been working with Scottish Clinical Simulation Centre (SCSC) since September 1999 investigating non-technical skills in anaesthesia. This project identified the non-technical skills (eg, decision making, teamworking, communication) necessary for effective anaesthetic practice developed these into a behavioural marker system that can be used to support training and assessment. The output of the first stage of the project was the Anaesthetists' Non-Technical Skills (ANTS) System, which contains fifteen skill elements grouped into four main skill categories with behavioural markers describing good and poor practice for each element. The ANTS System is now being evaluated in a number of trials organised by the Royal College of Anaesthetists to ensure it can be used reliably to assess anaesthetists' non-technical skills in both simulator and operating theatre environments.
Negotiating skills in critical incident management
Gavin Clayton, email: Gavin.clayton@sps.gov.uk
This is a part time PhD project (sponsored by Scottish Prison Service), designed to examine the skills of negotiating team members in critical incident management. This is a part time PhD research project.
Completed Projects
Behavioural markers for crew resource management
Prof Rhona Flin and Paul O'Connor, School of Psychology, mail: r.flin@abdn.ac.uk - Tel: 01224-272341
Crew Resource Management (CRM) is a special type of human factors traning given to pilots which is designed to improve team work and to reduce errors on the flight deck. An initial project, funded by the Civil Aviation Authority, Safety Research Group (1997-98) examined the critical behaviours for CRM performance. This study was based on an EC funded European Project (NOTECHS) which developed an evaluation form for pilots' non-technical skills. This group included participants from DLR (Germany), NLR, Sofreavia, and IMASSA (France) participated in a major EC study of non-echnical skills (JARTEL) (1997-2000) with DERA, Alitalia and BA.
Evaluating crew resource management training in the aviation industry
Prof Rhona Flin, Dr Paul O'Connor, and Georgina Fletcher, School of Psychology, email: r.flin@abdn.ac.uk - Tel: 01224-272341
This project was sponsored by the Civil Aviation Authority Safety Regulation Group to evaluate the effectiveness of human factors training in the aviation industry. All UK pilots are given special human factors training (known as Crew Resource Management training) designed to enhance the skills needed to enable them to work together as safe and efficient crews on the flight deck. These skills include leadership, team working, communication and problem solving. A survey was undertaken of UK air operators to determine how they are evaluating the impact of this training. In addition a literature survey reviewed 48 articles which examined the effectiveness of CRM training in aviation and other high reliablity industries.
Tel: +44 (0)1224 273210
Email: w.booth@abdn.ac.uk