Transfer of Non-technical Skills From Simulation to Clinical Practice

Since 1988, simulation has been proposed as a teaching tool in Anesthesia. The simulation environment allows to teach learners non-technical skills which are a combination of cognitive, social, and personal resources complementary to procedural skills that contribute to an efficient and safe performance.

Non-technical skills traditionally used in Anesthesia are task management, situational awareness, teamwork and decision making. They can be indirectly measured with validated scales (e.g. Anesthesia Non-Technical Skills (ANTS) system). In addition to these basic skills, specific skills such as Anesthesia Crisis Resource Management (ACRM) are required when the patient presents a critical clinical situation.

Simulation, as proposed by Gaba, was initially practiced in centers specifically designed for this purpose. More recently, we have proposed the model of in situ simulation, i.e. in the usual workplace with the usual work team, as another option for the practice of simulation.

There are many theories about the transfer of learning. Transfer can be defined as what remains of the completed training that the learner actually uses, i.e. the final real effect.

Nevertheless, almost 30 years after the introduction of simulation in the training of anesthesiologists, data demonstrating the interest of this teaching in terms of transfer of learning of non-technical skills to clinical practice or benefits for patients are rare.

The main objective of this study is to evaluate the transfer of non-technical skills taught in a training program including in situ simulation to clinical practice by anesthesiology residents.