Teaching non-technical skills in postgraduate veterinary education

Non-technical skills (NTS) are ’the cognitive, social and personal resource skills that complement technical skills, and contribute to safe and efficient task performance’ (Flin, et al., 2008). The importance of NTS is recognised across safety-critical industries, including human and veterinary healthcare, with proven effects on patient safety and staff wellbeing. However, formal training and education in NTS still lags behind, especially in postgraduate and distance-learning contexts. This abstract describes the authors’ experience of delivering an online course in NTS within a postgraduate programme.<br/><br/>The Veterinary Anaesthesia and Analgesia (VAA) programme at the University of Edinburgh is an online postgraduate programme aimed at veterinary professionals. Students can choose from several elective courses and NTS have been a component of the VAA curriculum for the past eight years. However, in 2025 a new “Non-Technical Skills for Safer Veterinary Care” course was launched. Intended learning outcomes, mapping to level 11 of the Scottish Credit and Qualifications Framework, centre on students demonstrating an extensive knowledge and critical understanding of NTS in different contexts, including the ability to critically review specialist literature to consolidate and extend their knowledge.<br/><br/>Teaching was delivered asynchronously online over a 6-week period. Mixed-media teaching material delivered using the Learn Ultra platform included recorded lectures and curated resources, with online discussions facilitating student engagement and tutor interaction. No veterinary-specific taxonomy for NTS currently exists, socourse content was decided based on the organisers’ knowledge and evidence from other healthcare systems.<br/><br/>Topics covered included an introduction to NTS and Human Factors; communication and communication tools; situation awareness, problem-solving and decision-making; teamwork, task management and leadership; stress, fatigue and resilience. Students were assessed via a reflective journal and an essay assignment.<br/><br/>The course ran for the first time in May and June 2025. While the students enrolled on the VAA programme have a common interest in veterinary anaesthesia and analgesia, they come from a variety of professional backgrounds. This highlights the importance of NTS across sectors and types of practice, with the online, asynchronous format allowing participation from a diverse cohort of international students. Despite the limited veterinary-specific evidence for the importance of NTS, there are a growing number of tools to support their implementation in practice.<br/><br/>Our experiences demonstrate how NTS training can be implemented into a postgraduate curriculum. Asynchronous online teaching is a viable delivery method for introductory teaching of these topics. Incorporation of additional digital education techniques, such as interactive scenario-based training and simulation, is likely to benefit future training of veterinary professionals in NTS.<br/><br/>References<br/>Flin, R., O'Connor, P. &amp; Crichton, M., 2008. Safety at the Sharp End: A Guide to Non-Technical Skills. 1st ed. Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press.