Is simulation-based team training performed by personnel in accordance with the INACSL Standards of Best Practice: SimulationSM?\u2014a qualitative interview study

Anne Strand Finstad,Torben Wisborg,Randi Ballangrud,Luis Georg Romundstad,Ingunn Aase,Conrad Arnfinn Bjørshol

doi:10.1186/s41077-021-00186-w

Abstract

BackgroundAnesthesia personnel was among the first to implement simulation and team training including non-technical skills (NTS) in the field of healthcare. Within anesthesia practice, NTS are critically important in preventing harmful undesirable events. To our best knowledge, there has been little documentation of the extent to which anesthesia personnel uses recommended frameworks like the Standards of Best Practice: SimulationSM to guide simulation and thereby optimize learning. The aim of our study was to explore how anesthesia personnel in Norway conduct simulation-based team training (SBTT) with respect to outcomes and objectives, facilitation, debriefing, and participant evaluation.MethodsIndividual qualitative interviews with healthcare professionals, with experience and responsible for SBTT in anesthesia, from 51 Norwegian public hospitals were conducted from August 2016 to October 2017. A qualitative deductive content analysis was performed.ResultsThe use of objectives and educated facilitators was common. All participants participated in debriefings, and almost all conducted evaluations, mainly formative. Preparedness, structure, and time available were pointed out as issues affecting SBTT.ConclusionsAnesthesia personnel’s SBTT in this study met the International Nursing Association for Clinical Simulation and Learning (INACSL) Standard of Best Practice: SimulationSM framework to a certain extent with regard to objectives, facilitators’ education and skills, debriefing, and participant evaluation.

Highlights

Anesthesia personnel was among the first to implement simulation and team training including nontechnical skills (NTS) in the field of healthcare
Sample and setting Altogether, 54 Norwegian public hospitals were approached through simulation networks and other professional networks [30] and one participant from each hospital was selected based on his/her experience and responsibility for anesthesia personnel’s simulation-based team training (SBTT) and answered the questions on behalf of them
A description of the qualitative data according to outcomes and objectives, facilitation, debriefing, and participant evaluation follows

Summary

Introduction

Anesthesia personnel was among the first to implement simulation and team training including nontechnical skills (NTS) in the field of healthcare. Simulation-based team training (SBTT) gives healthcare professionals the opportunity to learn and practice in safe environments without the risk of patient injury [1, 2]. Anesthesia personnel was among the first to implement simulation and team training including non-technical skills (NTS) in healthcare [1, 4]. NTS are defined as “the cognitive, social, and personal resource skills that complement technical skills and contribute to safe and efficient task performance” [6]. These skills often include situation awareness, decision-making, teamwork, leadership, and the management of stress and fatigue [7]. Specialized team-training programs in different settings have been introduced to improve NTS, including task management, team working, situation awareness, and decision-making [5, 11, 12]

Objectives

Methods

Results

Conclusion