Evaluation of mountain rescuers' (non-)technical skills during simulated resuscitation. (March 2022) - Hanus, Stefan A.
Highlights: An observation tool was developed to measure non-technical skills. Mountain rescuers showed mixed results concerning their non-/technical skills. Technical and non-technical skills did not correlate significantly. Mountain rescuers who had performed real resuscitations showed significantly better technical skills than those who had not. Mountain rescuers could not fully correctly assess the resuscitation performance of their colleagues during the simulation. Abstract: Mountain rescuers work voluntarily but must provide high-quality cardiopulmonary resuscitations (CPR). As demands for their services rise, the factors influencing CPR skills are investigated. Research has shown that technical skills (TS), non-technical skills (NTS), experience, experienced patient deaths, and monitoring impact resuscitation performance. This study explores the influence of these factors for this kind of voluntary medical personnel. A total of 103 mountain rescuers participated. A specially created NTS observation form, questionnaires and simulation manikin were used to measure NTS, TS, experience, and monitoring skills. Results indicate that NTS and TS did not correlate significantly. Only the number of real resuscitations differed significantly between the TS of experienced and inexperienced mountain rescuers. Experienced patient deaths were not significantly related to CPR performance. Furthermore, mountain rescuers could not fully correctly assess their colleagues during simulation. The study shows that previous research results might not hold true in a different medical domain.