Non-technical skills of the scrub practitioner: the SPLINTS system

Area of Science:

• Healthcare Education
• Surgical Nursing
• Human Factors in Medicine

Background:

• Nontechnical skills are crucial for patient safety in the operating room.
• Existing assessment tools may not adequately address the specific needs of scrub practitioners.
• The development of the SPLINTS system addresses this gap.

Purpose of the Study:

• To introduce the Scrub Practitioners' List of Intraoperative NonTechnical Skills (SPLINTS) system.
• To describe the development and methodology behind the SPLINTS system.
• To propose SPLINTS as a valuable training and assessment tool for Canadian scrub practitioners.

Main Methods:

• The SPLINTS system was developed by a multidisciplinary team of psychologists, scrub nurses, and a surgeon.
• The research was conducted at the Industrial Psychology Research Centre, University of Aberdeen, Scotland.
• Details were presented at the ORNAC National and International Conference with IFPN in 2013.

Main Results:

• The SPLINTS system defines a specific nontechnical skill set for scrub practitioners.
• It provides a behavioral rating tool for assessing these skills.
• The system's development involved collaboration between psychology and surgical professionals.

Conclusions:

• The SPLINTS system is a potentially valuable tool for enhancing the nontechnical skills of scrub practitioners.
• It can be utilized for both training and assessment purposes in perioperative settings.
• Its application in Canada could improve surgical team performance and patient outcomes.