Operating theatres are very private workplaces. There have been few research investigations into how highly trained doctors and nurses work together to achieve safe and efficient anaesthesia and surgery. While there have been major advances in surgical and anaesthetic procedures, there are still significant risks for patients during operations and adverse events are not unknown. Due to rising concern about patient safety, surgeons and anaesthetists have looked for ways of minimising adverse events. Behavioural scientists have been encouraged by clinicians to bring research techniques used in other industries into the operating theatre in order to study the behaviour of surgeons, nurses and anaesthetists. Safer Surgery presents one of the first collections of studies designed to understand the factors influencing safe and efficient surgical, anaesthetic and nursing practice. The book is written by psychologists, surgeons and anaesthetists, whose contributions combine to offer readers the latest research techniques and findings from some of the leading investigators in this field. It is designed for practitioners and researchers interested in understanding the behaviour of operating theatre team members, with a view to enhancing both training and practice. The material is also suitable for those studying behaviour in other areas of healthcare or in high-risk work settings. The aims of the book are to: a) present the latest research on the behaviour of operating theatre teams b) describe the techniques being used by psychologists and clinicians to study surgeons, anaesthetists and theatre nurses' task performance c) outline the safety implications of the research to date.
About the Author:

Rhona Flin (BSc, PhD Psychology) is Professor of Applied Psychology at the University of Aberdeen. She is a Chartered Psychologist, a Fellow of the British Psychological Society and the Royal Society of Edinburgh. She directs a team of psychologists working with high-risk industries on research and consultancy projects concerned with the management of safety and emergency response. She is currently leading the Scottish Patient Safety Research Network and has been working with anaesthetists and surgeons since 1999. Her books include Sitting in the Hot Seat: Leaders and Teams for Critical Incident Management (Wiley, 1996), Managing the Offshore Installation Workforce (edited with Slaven, PennWell Books, 1996), Decision Making Under Stress (edited with Salas, Strub & Martin, Ashgate, 1997), Incident Command: Tales from the Hot Seat (edited with Arbuthnot, Ashgate 2002) and Safety at the Sharp End: A Guide to Non-Technical Skills (with O'Connor & Crichton, Ashgate, 2008). Lucy Mitchell (MA, MRes Psychology) is a Research Assistant at the Industrial Psychology Research Centre at the University of Aberdeen. She is currently developing a framework for assessing and training operating theatre scrub practitioners' non-technical skills and is also working towards a PhD in this area. She is a former police officer and has previously investigated the decision-making skills of police firearms officers.