Effect of a behavioral intervention on anxiety and perceived performance of non-technical skills during surgical simulations.

Background: Surgical trainees experience intrinsic stress and anxiety during high-acuity clinical situations which can negatively impact performance. Emerging data suggests that education in mindfulness-based coping techniques may improve performance. We evaluated the effects of a stress recovery intervention on novice trainees' perceived level of anxiety during an intentionally stressful simulation.

Use of volunteer student abstractors for a retrospective cohort analysis: a study of inter-rater reliability.

Background: Little is known about the reliability of data collected by abstractors without professional medical training. This investigation sought to determine the level of agreement among untrained volunteer abstractors as part of a study to evaluate the risk assessment of venous thromboembolism in patients who have undergone trauma.

Methods: Forty-nine paper charts were chosen randomly from a volunteer-reviewed cohort of 2,339 and were compared with those of a single experienced abstractor.