Non-technical skills in undergraduate nursing education: consideration for a training course development

Abstract

Until nowadays, formal training of nurses has focused predominantly on developing knowledge, clinical expertise and technical skills. These skills are necessary but not sufficient to promote and maintain high levels of patient care and safety. Therefore, although recent literature has highlighted the importance of introducing non-technical skills training and assessment within healthcare, nursing education has still to fully include these skills on the training process. International research has shown that many errors and adverse events are due to a lack of nontechnical skills rather than clinical knowledge (Dieckmann, 2010; Irwin & Weidmann, 2015; Lyk-Jensen, Jepsen, Spanager, Dieckmann, & Ostergaard, 2014). Patient safety issues and the incidence of errors are important to all healthcare professionals and public health organizations. Errors do occur in healthcare as in other industries but when these errors involve the risk to human life, the concern is paramount. Thus, one of the most important strategies for error reduction involves prevention (Lindamood, Rachwal, Kappus, Weinstock, & Doherty, 2011). In the light of this, it is essential for undergraduate nursing students to develop not only technical but also nontechnical skills. Moreover, developing and implementing a non-technical skills training course may significantly improve students’ performance and better prepare them for their future clinical practice. Consequently, consideration must be given in integrating NTS training into undergraduate nursing education curriculum.