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Coping with stress in surgery: the difficulty of measuring non-technical skills

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Abstract

Background

Non-technical skills are relevant to surgical performance but are difficult to quantify. The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between self-efficacy, which is a measure of stress-coping ability, and surgical performance.

Methods

Two hundred and sixteen basic surgical trainees were assessed on their performance of three bench model-type open and laparoscopic surgical tasks. They also completed a 10-item General Self-Efficacy (GSE) questionnaire to assess their stress-coping abilities. Their assessment scores were correlated with the GSE scores.

Results

The mean GSE score of 31.39 was higher than the recorded population norms. There was no significant correlation between GSE and surgical performance for open or laparoscopic tasks.

Conclusion

Junior surgical trainees have high self-belief scores, but these abilities are difficult to measure and quantify. More refined methods may be necessary to measure non-technical skills relevant to surgery.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. National Surgical Training Centre, Colles Institute, Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, RCSI House, 121 St Stephen’s Green, Dublin 2, Ireland

    E. Boyle, A. M. Kennedy, E. Doherty, D. O’Keeffe & O. Traynor

Authors
  1. E. Boyle
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  2. A. M. Kennedy
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  3. E. Doherty
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  4. D. O’Keeffe
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  5. O. Traynor
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Correspondence to E. Boyle.

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Boyle, E., Kennedy, A.M., Doherty, E. et al. Coping with stress in surgery: the difficulty of measuring non-technical skills. Ir J Med Sci 180, 215–220 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11845-010-0578-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11845-010-0578-z

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