Critical Events in the Operating theatre or intensive care unit: The role of cognitive aids

Human intelligence constantly produces errors, and has a great capacity to detect and correct them. Teamwork involves non-technical skills (communication, leadership, decision-making), which can also be the source of errors. Critical events create stress that increases the production of errors and at the same time the difficulty in mobilising knowledge. Progress in patient safety has led to the implementation of cognitive aids (CA) (for example check-lists, emergency manuals, etc.): in case of a critical event, information is presented in a structured manner, step by step, as close as possible to the bedside, aiming to improve the performance of the medical and paramedical teams byguiding thinking, listing the sequence of required actions and thus avoiding to forget steps. One of the team members is responsible for reading it aloud to guide the actions of the rest of the team. The literature shows that the use of these tools is effective during simulations and improves the management of critical events in the operating theatre by the anaesthesia team, as in other areas of medical practice. CAs are tools whose design (simple and clear), implementation (training and simulation) and availability (always available) are essen-tial. They require support, proper format and adaptation to the local environment. Simulation based training in the use of CA is fundamental. SFAR (through their Risk Management Committee [CAMR]) supports this project by producing CAs for the management of critical events in the operating theatre and intensive care unit (available on the website https://sfar.org/ espace-professionel-anesthesiste-reanimateur/outils-professionnels/boite-a-outils/ aides-cognitives-en-anesthesie-reanimation/, and via the SFAR mobile application).