ABSTRACT
This chapter provides an overview of surgical education and training with respect to non-technical skills, and focuses on the needs of both trainees and established surgeons. It outlines the main stages required to conceptualize, design, implement, reinforce and evaluate non-technical skills training to enhance surgical performance. There are major resources and time limitations in surgical training and continuing education, similar to other high-risk professions; thus, focus on efficiency and effectiveness is paramount. Developing a training course may seem daunting, but it can be tackled by breaking the task into a number of discrete stages. The aim of evaluation is to provide data that help faculty, sponsoring societies and governing bodies determine the extent to which a training programme achieves its goals. Most training evaluation studies can be based on Kirkpatrick’s training evaluation framework, which proposes four distinct levels of evaluation: reactions, learning, behaviour and results.
