Discrepant perceptions of communication, teamwork and situation awareness among surgical team members

textabstractObjective: To assess surgical team members' differences in perception of non-technical skills. Design: Questionnaire design. Setting: Operating theatres (OTs) at one university hospital, three teaching hospitals and one general hospital in the Netherlands. Participants: Sixty-six surgeons, 97 OT nurses, 18 anaesthetists and 40 nurse anaesthetists. Methods: All surgical team members, of five hospitals, were asked to complete a questionnaire and state their opinion on the current state of communication, teamwork and situation awareness at the OT. Results: Ratings for 'communication' were significantly different, particularly between surgeons and all other team members (P ≤ 0.001). The ratings for 'teamwork' differed significantly between all team members (P ≤ 0.005). Within 'situation awareness' significant differences were mainly observed for 'gathering information' between surgeons and other team members (P