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4th Research in Medical Education (RIME) Symposium 2015

19.03-21.03.2015, München

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Improving medical students non-technical skills relevant for advanced life support

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  • corresponding author presenting/speaker M. K. Scheumann - University of Regensburg, Regensburg, Germany
  • H. Jossberger - University of Regensburg, Regensburg, Germany
  • H. Gruber - University of Regensburg, Regensburg, Germany
  • B. M. Graf - Regensburg University Hospital, Regensburg, Germany
  • Y. A. Zausig - Regensburg University Hospital, Regensburg, Germany

4th Research in Medical Education (RIME) Symposium 2015. München, 19.-21.03.2015. Düsseldorf: German Medical Science GMS Publishing House; 2015. DocP14

doi: 10.3205/15rime33, urn:nbn:de:0183-15rime333

Published: March 12, 2015

© 2015 Scheumann et al.
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. You are free: to Share - to copy, distribute and transmit the work, provided the original author and source are credited. See license information at http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/.

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Introduction: In emergency medicine, particularly in case of advanced life support, research has shown that non-technical skills (NTS) play a significant positive role [1]. Several studies show that these skills help to prevent errors and hence increase patient safety significantly. However, prior research also indicates that medical students fail to master NTS during cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR). Based on the theory of negative knowledge [2] a NTS training was developed. The aim was to investigate students’ NTS and evaluate the training.

Methods: Altogether, 140 medical students in third clinical semester participated. An open and non-participant observation procedure was used to measure the following NTS: leadership, communication, teamwork and resource management. An observation form was developed based on the Anaesthetists’ Non-Technical Skills (ANTS) system [3]. Participants were divided into two groups. Both visited a standard CPR course. Only one course got a NTS training implemented. After the courses, students did a simulated CPR and their performance was videotaped. Each video was rated by two researchers using the observation form for NTS. Descriptive statistics and correlations were used to analyse the data quantitatively.

Results: Results show that medical students consider NTS in CPR context as relevant. Significant correlations between several NTS categories were revealed. The group without NTS training failed to master NTS during CPR. The trained group showed adequate to good performance concerning leadership, communication and teamwork.

Discussion: Medical students consider NTS in CPR context as relevant, but nevertheless fail to master NTS without training. Our study shows that NTS can be improved by explicit training. Further research will be necessary to investigate whether and how NTS training can lead to enhanced patient safety and contribute to error prevention. Moreover, the synergy of NTS and technical skills has to be investigated in future research.

Outline

References

1.
Marsch SC, Müller C, Marquardt K, Conrad G, Tschan F, Hunziker PR. Human factors affect the quality of cardiopulmonary resuscitation in simulated cardiac arrests. Resuscitation. 2004;60(1):51-56. DOI: 10.1016/j.resuscitation.2003.08.004 External link
2.
Gartmeier M, Bauer J, Gruber H, Heid H. Negative knowledge: Understanding professional learning and expertise. Vocation Learn. 2008;1(2):87-103. DOI: 10.1007/s12186-008-9006-1 External link
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Fletcher G, Flin R, McGeorge P, Glavin R, Maran N, Patey R. Rating non-technical skills: Developing a behavioural marker system for use in anaesthesia. Cogn Technol Work. 2004;6(3):165-171. DOI: 10.1007/s10111-004-0158-y External link