A Delphi study identifying operating room nurses' non-technical skills.

Area of Science:

• Nursing Science
• Patient Safety
• Human Factors in Healthcare

Background:

• Non-technical skills are critical for operating room (OR) nurses but are not fully understood.
• Previous research has not comprehensively identified the non-technical skills of both scrub and circulating OR nurses.
• Understanding these skills is essential for optimizing OR team performance and patient outcomes.

Purpose of the Study:

• To empirically identify and categorize the non-technical skills of operating room nurses.
• To explore the non-technical skills specific to scrub and circulating nursing roles.
• To contribute to the development of training and assessment tools for OR nurses' non-technical skills.

Main Methods:

• A modified online Delphi technique was employed over three rounds.
• An expert panel of 106 OR nurses with at least two years of experience was recruited.
• Data were collected via online surveys (April-September 2020) using crew resource management theory, analyzed using descriptive and thematic analysis.

Main Results:

• Consensus was reached on maintaining established non-technical skill categories: situation awareness, leadership, decision-making, communication, and teamwork.
• Novel non-technical skills were identified through qualitative data analysis, notably independent decision-making and enhanced leadership capabilities.
• The study confirmed a broader spectrum of non-technical skills than previously documented.

Conclusions:

• The non-technical skills of OR nurses are more extensive than previously recognized, encompassing tacit knowledge.
• This research provides a verbalized list of essential non-technical skills for OR nurse education and training.
• The findings can inform the development of tools to improve OR nurse training, supervision, and assessment, ultimately enhancing surgical patient safety.