Project leader
         Project description

Karl Hampl, M.D.

The selection of anesthesia personnel traditonally relies on information obtained from unstructered interviews or reviews of personal files of the candidates. However, experience from other professions in selecting personnel, i.e., cockpit personnel for airlines, suggests that this approach may not be effective for selecting high profile applicants for training positions in anesthesia. More objective information such as data obtained from test batteries assessing various characteristics of the applicants (i.e., technical and interpersonal skills) may be useful for selecting anesthesia personnel. Such test batteries are readily available and validated for various professions, but not for anesthesia personnel. For this reason, a research project was started in collaboration with

Prof. Bob Helmreich
Department of Psychology, University of Texas, Austin, TX

and

Beat Benninger
Assessment Center, Swissair, Zurich, Switzerland.

In a first step, we attempt to perform a job analysis and try to assess the Operation Room performance of anesthesia trainees by applying measures that have been used to evaluate performance in aviation and other environments.
In a second step, the trainees are subjected to various test batteries used for selecting cockpit crews and data are analyzed in conjunction with the OR performance data to validate these test batteries for anesthesia personnel.