#208 Identifying the nontechnical skills of trauma team leaders using critical incident interviews

<h3>Introduction</h3> Despite the difficulty involved in the trauma team lead (TTL) role, there’s a noted absence of specific training focused on non-technical skills (NTS), which are paramount to successful patient and team management. Our research aimed to scrutinise the role of TTL to identify the NTS required. <h3>Methods</h3> Critical incident technique interviews were carried out in which ten emergency medicine doctors described a challenging resuscitation event in which they had been the TTL. The NTS described in the interviews were coded using deductive content analysis and the frequencies of each were determined. <h3>Results</h3> A total of 331 codable moments were identified from the interviews, defined as any behaviour describing NTS. A deductive approach was taken to the analysis. Communication and teamwork were found to be the most frequently used NTS (n=98, 30%). Situational awareness was the second most frequently occurring NTS (n=72, 24%), followed by task management (n=67, 20%), decision making (n=62, 19%) and leadership (n=31, 9%). Behavioural markers demonstrating each skill, along with exemplar quote to clarify it in the context of TTL role are shown in table. <h3>Conclusions</h3> This study underscores the importance of non-technical skills for Trauma Team Leaders. While findings mirrored those from existing frameworks, unique nuances pertinent to TTLs were identified. These findings strengthen the argument for dedicated training programmes for developing the NTS of TTLs.