George Youngson

How do surgeons make intraoperative decisions

Surgeons’ intraoperative decision making is a key element of clinical practice, yet has received scant attention in the surgical literature. In recent years, serial changes in the configuration of surgical training in the UK have reduced the time spent by trainees in the operating theatre. The opportunity to replace this lost experience with active teaching of decision making is important, but there seem to have been very few studies that have directly examined the cognitive skills underlying surgical decision making during operations. From the available evidence in surgery, and drawing from research in other safety-critical occupations, four decision-making strategies that surgeons may use are discussed: intuitive (recognition-primed), rule based, option comparison and creative. Surgeons’ decision-making processes should be studied to provide a better evidence base for the training of cognitive skills for the intraoperative environment.

Experience matters: comparing novice and expert ratings of non-technical skills using the NOTSS system

There is growing evidence that non‐technical skills (NTS) are related to surgical outcomes and patient safety. The aim of this study was to further evaluate a behaviour rating system (NOTSS: Non‐Technical Skills for Surgeons) which can be used for workplace assessment of the cognitive and social skills which are essential components of NTS. A novice group composed of consultant surgeons (n = 44) from five Scottish hospitals attended one of six experimental sessions and were trained to use the NOTSS system. They then used NOTSS to rate surgeons’ behaviors in six simulated scenarios filmed in the operating room. The behaviours demonstrated in each scenario were compared to expert ratings to determine accuracy. The mode rating from the novice group (who received a short training session in behaviour assessment) was the same as the expert group in 50% of ratings. Where there was disagreement, novice raters tended to provide lower ratings than the experts. Novice raters require significant training in this emerging area of competence in order to accurately rate non‐technical skills.

Thinking ahead of the surgeon. An interview study to identify scrub nurses’ non-technical skills

BACKGROUND Efforts to reduce adverse event rates in healthcare have revealed the importance of identifying the essential non-technical (cognitive and social) skills for safe and effective performance. Previous research on non-technical skills for operating theatre staff has concentrated on doctors rather than nursing professionals. OBJECTIVES The aim of the study was to identify the critical non-technical skills that are essential for safe and effective performance as an operating theatre scrub nurse. METHODS Experienced scrub nurses (n = 25) and consultant surgeons (n = 9) from four Scottish hospitals were interviewed using a semi-structured format. The protocols were designed to identify the main social and cognitive skills required by scrub nurses. Interviews were digitally recorded, transcribed verbatim and independently coded to extract behaviours in order to produce a list of the main non-technical skills for safe and effective scrub nurse performance. RESULTS The non-technical skills of situation awareness, communication, teamwork, task management and coping with stress were identified as key to successful scrub nurse task performance. Component sets of behaviours for each of these categories were also noted. CONCLUSION The interviews with subject matter experts from scrub nursing and surgery produced preliminary evidence that situation awareness, communication, teamwork and coping with stress are the principal non-technical skills required for effective performance as a scrub nurse.

How can we prepare medical students for theatre-based learning?

Context  The quality of medical undergraduate operating theatre‐based teaching is variable. Preparation prior to attending theatre may support student learning. Identifying and agreeing key skills, competences and objectives for theatre‐based teaching may contribute to this process of preparation.

A comparison between ilioinguinal‐iliohypogastric nerve block performed by anaesthetist or surgeon for postoperative analgesia following groin surgery in children

A study was performed to compare postoperative analgesia in children undergoing groin surgery. Patients were randomly allocated to receive ilioinguinal‐iliohypogastric (I‐I) nerve blocks using 0.25% plain bupivicaine (0.5 ml·kg−1) performed either percutaneously by the anaesthetist after the induction of general anaesthesia, before surgery commenced, or intraoperatively, under direct vision, by the surgeon. Analgesia was assessed by pain scoring in the recovery room and at hourly intervals for eight h postoperatively. Analgesic requirement was also noted. Statistical analysis of the results revealed no difference in pain score between groups treated either by anaesthetist or surgeon. However, children under two years of age had significantly higher pain scores than those over two.

Congenital lateral cervical cysts of infancy

The etiology of lateral cervical cysts in infancy is complex. The cysts are congenital in origin and are derived from the third or fourth branchial apparatus. The authors describe two cases of congenital lateral cervical cysts with an internal opening in the pyriform sinus and possible origin in the third branchial arch. The embryology, clinical presentation, and operative management of this condition is reviewed.

Thinking Ahead of the Surgeon: Developing a Behavioural Rating System for Scrub Practitioners' Non-Technical Skills (SPLINTS)

Efforts to reduce adverse event rates in healthcare have revealed the importance of identifying the essential non-technical (cognitive and social) skills for safe and effective performance and developing tools for rating and training those skills. The focus of studies to date has been surgeons, anaesthetists, or the whole team, with less attention paid to other professionals. The aim of the study was to develop a behavioural rating system for non-technical skills of the scrub practitioner (nurse/technician). This paper reports an interview study, as part of a task analysis, to identify the critical non-technical skills for this role, and the development of a prototype behavioural rating system. Experienced scrub practitioners (n = 25) and consultant surgeons (n = 9), from four Scottish teaching hospitals, were interviewed using a semi-structured design. Data that described generic non-technical skills were extracted from the interview transcripts and thereafter, psychologists and panels of perioperative practitioners (n = 4) used an iterative process to develop a skills taxonomy. Three categories of non-technical skills were identified as critical for safe and effective scrub practitioner performance. These were; situation awareness, communication and teamwork, task management. Three underlying skill elements for each of the three categories were labeled by the expert panels and they provided examples of good and poor behaviours for each of these skill elements, drawing on their domain knowledge. The reliability and psychometric properties of the prototype skills taxonomy and behaviour rating system are currently being tested using standardized, simulated scenarios.

Evaluation of the SPLINTS system for scrub practitioners’ non-technical skills:

Background: The Scrub Practitioners’ List of Intraoperative NonTechnical Skills (SPLINTS) system is a new tool for training and assessing scrub practitioner behaviours during surgical operations. Method: Experienced scrub practitioners (n = 34) attended a single day session where they received background training in human factors and nontechnical skills and were trained to use the SPLINTS system. They then rated the scrub practitioners’ nontechnical skill performance in seven videorecorded simulated scenarios and completed a posttraining questionnaire. Results: Withingroup agreement for all three skill categories, and for six of the nine elements, was acceptable (r wg >.70). Participants could use SPLINTS to accurately score performance compared with expert ratings and were within one scale point of expert ratings in > 90% of skill categories and elements. There was good internal consistency between elements and their categories (M<.2 of a scale point) and participants reported that the system was complete. Conclusion: The SPLINTS system was deemed adequately reliable, for rating scrub practitioners’ nontechnical skills, using standardized filmed scenarios. Usability of the SPLINTS system in the real operating theatre environment is still to be assessed.

Endoscopic restoration of esophageal continuity in caustic burn

Total obliteration of the esophageal lumen after caustic ingestion is an uncommon event. Esophageal continuity was reestablished using endoscopic resection of scar tissue followed by serial dilatations.

Response to: ‘Lack of standardisation between specialties for human factors content in postgraduate surgical training: an analysis of specialty curricula in the UK’ by Greig et al

We were very interested to read the article by Greig et al ,1 which has identified how poorly non-technical skills appear in a review of 46 postgraduate curricula from all medical specialties. This is similar to work sponsored by the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges and carried out by the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh (RCSEd) in conjunction with the NHS Institute of Innovation and Improvement2 which also demonstrated significant deficiency in …