Nonsurgical Skills
Mastery of non-technical skills (NTS) such as communication, teamwork,
situational awareness, and decision-making is critical to surgical
training, but challenging in a remote learning environment. Multiple
behavioral rating systems have been developed as frameworks for teaching
and competency-based assessment of non-technical surgical skills. The
Non-Technical Skills for Surgeons (NOTSS) system, Oxford NOTECHS II, and
Observational Teamwork Assessment for Surgery (OTAS) have been widely
employed across a range of surgical disciplines and environments (Flin
R., 2012) (Robertson et al., 2014) (Javia & Sardesai, 2017). Although
NTS assessment is most often employed in clinical settings, it can also
be adapted to surgical simulations (Magill & Tolley, 2020). Notably for
head and neck surgical trainees, NTS training can be an integral
component of simulated surgical emergencies (Wu, Kim, Fung, & Roth,
2018).