assessment of anesthetist’s non-technical skills in iranian hospitals

Background: safe performance and patient safety are two important issues in the delivery of healthcare services. non-technical skills are necessary for safe performance of anesthesiologists in the operating room. this study aimed to assess the anesthetists’ non-technical skills in iranian hospitals. methods: this cross-sectional study was conducted on 38 anesthetists working in orthopedic surgery wards of two hospitals in 2019. the data were collected using the anesthetist’s non- technical skills (ants) system, which included four domains, namely task management, teamwork, situation awareness, and decision-making. the anesthetists were assessed by a trained observer via observing and recording the events during surgeries. results: the mean score of ants was 10.12±1.66 out of 16. among the four skills, the highest and lowest mean scores were related to “task management” (2.94 out of 4) and “decisionmaking” (2.26 out of 4), respectively. work experience showed a significant positive relationship with “decision-making” (p=0.008, r=0.974). however, higher education level was not associated with improved anesthesiology skills. conclusion: the quality of non-technical skills was below the acceptable level in the studied anesthetists. thus, it is recommended that the anesthetists’ skills should be improved through educational and political interventions.