Unveilling the hidden skillset: exploring non-technical skills in surgical education across spanish medical universities

Background Non-Technical Skills (NTS) are cognitive, social, and personal resource skills that are crucial in complex and high-risk environments. The aims of our research are to determine the prevalence and content of NTS in the surgical rotation teaching guides of the Medicine Degree programs in Spanish Universities, to identify the most prevalent types and subtypes of NTS, and to analyze factors associated with the prevalence of surgical NTS in Medical Schools in Spain.Methods Descriptive observational cross-sectional study involving the identification and collection of competencies outlined in the surgical rotation teaching guides of Spanish Medical Schools. Information regarding university performance was obtained from the Foundation for Knowledge and Development Ranking webpage. The "Non-Technical Skills for Surgeons" (NOTSS) system was used to classify each competency in the teaching guides as NTS (categories and elements) and technical skills. Disagreements were resolved through group consensus.Results A total of 1,846 competencies were analyzed in surgical rotations of the Medicine Degree programs across 40 Spanish Universities, with 99 competencies identified as surgical NTS, accounting for 5% of the total. The most frequently identified surgical NTS were "Decision Making" (46%), "Communication & Teamwork" (25%), and "Leadership" (19%). Additionally, several NOTSS were not identified in any institution. Public universities and those including a greater number of competencies had a higher rate of surgical NTS competencies, and we did not find a correlation between surgical NTS competencies and quality indices of University Centers.Conclusions There is a limited presence of surgical NTS in the educational plans of Spanish Universities.