• D Breen, L Bogar, P Heigl, J Rittberger, and G D Shorten.
• Department of Anaesthesia and Intensive Care, Cork University Hospital, Ireland. dorothy.breen@hse.ie
• Acta Anaesthesiol Scand. 2011 Jul 1; 55 (6): 653-7.

BackgroundThere is a need for a procedure-specific means of assessment of clinical performance in anaesthesia. The aim of this study was to devise a tool for assessing the performance of spinal anaesthesia, which has both content and construct validity.MethodsThe clinical assessment tool was generated using a focus group discussion of practicing anaesthetists. The tool comprised three components: a checklist of 11 pre-defined errors, two time intervals and a six-item global rating scale (GRS). Thirty-one anaesthetists at three different levels of experience underwent testing using the clinical assessment tool: novice (n=10), intermediate (n=10) and expert (n=11).ResultsThe error checklist and GRS scores but not the time intervals were significantly different between the three groups (P<0.005).ConclusionThe error checklist and GRS form the basis for a procedure-specific assessment tool for spinal anaesthesia.© 2011 The Authors. Acta Anaesthesiologica Scandinavica © 2011 The Acta Anaesthesiologica Scandinavica Foundation.

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