Influence of sociodemographic factors on expert-rated non-technical skills in trauma team simulations

Hospital trauma teams consist of multidisciplinary healthcare professionals with diverse backgrounds and varying levels of non-technical skills. While these skills can be improved through team simulation training, little is known whether there is a link between the sociodemographic backgrounds of team members and their non-technical skills. The objective of this study was to assess whether such sociodemographic details influence variations in non-technical skill levels as evaluated with the T-NOTECHS scale.

This prospective study included 337 trauma team simulation trainings with 1822 participants in 2013-22. Data collection metrics included: (1) individual sociodemographic details (gender, age, occupation, working experience in years in present duty, and number of times participating in trauma team simulation training); (2) team size; and (3) team performance as assessed by an expert rater across the five domains of T-NOTECHS (leadership, cooperation and resource management, communication and interaction, assessment and decision making, and situation awareness/coping with stress) on a five-point Likert scale.

There were no significant differences in the T-NOTECHS scores based on gender, age, occupation, or training frequency. Work experience and team size were consistently associated with non-technical performance, with lower scores among less experienced professionals and smaller teams.

Work experience and team size were the strongest background factors associated with non-technical skills in simulated trauma teams. Less experienced professionals and those in smaller teams had consistently lower performance. These findings underscore the importance of clinical experience and team composition in team effectiveness and highlight the need for targeted support for early-career professionals.