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. 2024 Feb 22;24(1):174.
doi: 10.1186/s12909-024-05164-0.

Teaching nontechnical skills in the undergraduate education of health care professionals: a nationwide cross-sectional study in Hungary

Tamás Nagy  1   2 , Gábor Fritúz  1   3 , János Gál  3 , Andrea Székely  2   3   4 , Enikő Kovács  5   6
Affiliations

Teaching nontechnical skills in the undergraduate education of health care professionals: a nationwide cross-sectional study in Hungary

Tamás Nagy et al. BMC Med Educ. .

Abstract

Background: The aim of our cross-sectional study was to evaluate the current situation and curriculum of nontechnical skills (NTS) training in the undergraduate education of health care professionals in Hungary.

Methods: All institutes with relevant NTS training in Hungarian faculties of medicine and faculties of health sciences were asked to fill out a 19-item questionnaire. Descriptive statistics were performed, and the characteristics of NTS teaching and non-NTS teaching institutes were compared. The independent predictors of teaching NTS in a particular institute were identified with multiple logistic regression.

Results: Seventy-seven institutes responded (52% response rate), of which 66% trained NTS. The most frequent method of NTS training is talking about them during a practice or lecture, and less than half of NTS respondents use simulation. The most frequent cause of not teaching NTS is a lack of human or technical resources. The type of faculty (p = 0.025), academic year (p = 0.001), field of medicine (p = 0.025), and importance of teamwork (p = 0.021) differed between NTS and noNTS institutes. Teaching students in academic year two represented the only independent predictor of NTS education (p = 0.012).

Conclusions: Our findings show that the undergraduate curriculum of Hungarian universities includes some type of NTS education; however, this education requires further development.

Keywords: Cross-sectional study; Medical education; Nontechnical skills; Nursing education.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no competing interests.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
The results of descriptive statistics characterizing participants. Number of respondents: N = 77, response rate 52%. A The proportion of Hungarian universities among the respondents. B The proportion of faculties among the respondents. The category “Faculty of Medical Sciences” reflects respondents teaching in faculties providing doctoral degrees at the end of their undergraduate education (medical doctors, dentists and pharmacists). The category “Faculty of Health Sciences” reflects respondents teaching in faculties that educate health care workers. Category “Both” reflects faculties that educate students in both previous categories. C The rate of urgent situations during patient care in the subject and specialty taught by a given responder. D The types and rate of nontechnical skills used in the specialties taught by the respondents. NTS: nontechnical skills
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Characteristics of participating institutes teaching NTS (n = 51). A The rate of respondents/institutes teaching NTS. Yes: the institute teaches NTS in undergraduate education. No: the institute does not teach NTS in undergraduate education. B The frequency of sessions teaching nontechnical skills in the NTS group. C The types and rates of nontechnical skills taught by respondents in the NTS group. X axis: number of responses. D The types and rates of methods used to teach nontechnical skills in the NTS group. X axis: number of responses. NTS: nontechnical skills
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Characteristics of NTS education in the NTS group (n = 51). A The types and rate of exact situations used by respondents to train NTS. X axis: number of responses. B The median value and interquartile ranges of Likert-scale answers given to question if NTS education requires further development in a particular institute. Answers: 1 - strongly disagree, 2 - disagree, 3 - somewhat disagree, 4 – somewhat agree, 5 – agree, 6 - strongly agree. Box and whisker plots were generated by the Tukey method. C The rate of reasons why an institute finds training NTS important in undergraduate education. NTS: nontechnical skills
Fig. 4
Fig. 4
Characteristics of participating institutes not teaching NTS (n = 26). A The causes of the lack of teaching nontechnical skills in the noNTS group. B The potential types of methods that could be applied to train NTS in institutes not teaching NTS in undergraduate education based on the respondents’ opinions. X axis: number of responses. C The potential types of NTS that could be taught in noNTS institutes based on the respondents’ opinions. X axis: number of responses. D The potential types of exact situations that could be used to train NTS in noNTS institutes based on the respondents’ opinions. X axis: number of responses. NTS: nontechnical skills
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