Interprofessional non-technical skills for surgeons in disaster response: A qualitative study of the Australian perspective.

Authors
Willems, Anneliese ; Waxman, Buce ; Bacon, Andrew K. ; Smith, Julian ; Peller, Jennifer ; Kitto, Simon

Interprofessional non-technical skills for surgeons in have not yet been developed. The aims of this study were to identify the non-technical skills required of surgeons in and for disaster response and to explore the barriers and facilitators to interprofessional practice in surgical teams responding to disasters. Twenty health professionals, with prior experience in natural disaster response or education, participated in semi-structured in-depth interviews. A qualitative matrix analysis design was used to thematically analyze the data. Non-technical skills for surgeons in disaster response identified in this study included skills for austere environments, cognitive strategies and interprofessional skills. Skills for austere environments were physical self-care including survival skills, psychological self-care, flexibility, adaptability, and improvisation. Cognitive strategies identified in this study were 'big picture' thinking, situational awareness, critical thinking, problem solving and creativity. Interprofessional attributes include communication, team-player, sense of humor, cultural competency and conflict resolution skills. 'Interprofessionalism' in disaster teams also emerged as a key factor in this study and incorporated elements of effective teamwork, clear leadership, role adjustment and conflict resolution. The majority of participants held the belief that surgeons needed in non-technical skills in order to achieve in disaster response. Surgeons considerring becoming involved in disaster management should be trained in these skills, and these skills should be incorporated into disaster preparation courses with an interprofessional focus.

Codebooks
SLR Criteria
Summary

Iterative inductive and deductive approach with literature triangulation for the development of themes.Transcriptions analyzed using TCA to identify themes following the matrix method analysis.

SLR Criteria
Summary

Qualitative-matrix analysis design – Thematic content analysis (TCA) and interviews

Summary

Non-technical skills for surgeons in classified in 3 categories:Austere environment skillsCognitive strategiesInterprofessional skills

Summary

Prioritize a diverse professional participant pool in sampling to reflect the variety of health disciplines represented in .Health professionals were divided into four broad professional categories.

SLR Criteria
Summary

Purposeful, snowball and maximum variation sampling were used to identify participants.Collection through voluntary semi-structured in-depth interviews (20 of them ranging from 45mins. To 2hrs in duration)8 were conducted face-to-face12 were telephonic interviews [due to geographical location]

SLR Criteria
Summary

What are the perceptions of surgeons and other health professionals of the current and required interprofessional non-technical core competencies of surgeons in management?

Summary

the sample size of this work was limited to 20 participants, restricting the ability to apply the findings to other settings.views of non-medical personnel were not part of the participant group

SLR Criteria
Summary

The majority of participants held the belief that surgeons needed in non-technical skills in order to achieve in . Surgeons considering becoming involved in management should be trained in these skills, and these skills should be incorporated into disaster preparation courses with an interprofessional focus.

SLR Criteria
Summary

 The phenomena explored within this study are interprofessional nontechnicalcompetencies for surgeons in .

eu Portfolio of Solutions web site has been initially developed in the scope of DRIVER+ project. Today, the service is managed by AIT Austrian Institute of Technology GmbH., for the benefit of the European Management. PoS is endorsed and supported by the Disaster Competence Network Austria (DCNA) as well as by the STAMINA and TeamAware H2020 projects.