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

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.