Translation and Psychometric Properties of the Persian Version of Oxford Non-technical Skills 2 System: Assessment of Surgical Teams’ Non-technical Skills in Orthopedic Surgery Wards

Background: Non-technical skills are interpersonal and cognitive skills involved in safe performance and preventingadverse events during surgery. it is necessary to dominate the non-technical skills to ensure patient safety. This studyhas aimed to assess the validity and reliability of Oxford Non-technical skills 2 system (Oxford NOTECHS 2) in Iran andto evaluate surgical teams’ non-technical skills in orthopedic surgery wards.Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted in Tehran, Iran during 2015. The level of evidence is III based onCanadian Task Force on the Periodic Health Examination. We followed the Beaton’s guideline for Persian translationand cross-cultural adaptation of the checklist. In this study, 60 orthopedic surgical team members working in twoselected public hospitals were selected by cluster random sampling method.Oxford NOTECHS 2 system which isconsisted of four subscales including leadership and management, teamwork and collaboration, decision-makingand problem-solving, and situational awareness was used to collect the data.Results: The overall mean score of non-technical skills was 69.52±6.64. The mean score for surgery, anesthesia, andnursing sub-teams were 24.98±3.71, 21.12±4.29, and 23.42±3.60, respectively. The teams’ scores in total, leadershipand management, teamwork and collaboration, problem solving and decision making, and situational awareness atthe standard level were 74.70%, 76.95%, 73.75%, 66.87%, and 74.70% of maximum score, respectively.Conclusion: The validity and reliability of the Persian version of Oxford NOTECHS 2 scale in Iran was confirmed. Theresults of this study showed that surgical teams’ non-technical skills were at a moderate level in orthopedic surgerywards. The minimum score of the surgical teams’ non-technical skills belonged to anesthesia and maximum to surgerysub-team. Using the training programs and setup workshop is recommended to improve the surgical teams’ nontechnicalskills, especially surgery-nursing sub-team.Level of evidence: III