Getting better all the time? Facilitating accurate team self-assessments through simulation.

Introduction: Our study explores the extent to which teams are accurate assessors of their own performance and teamwork, and how simulation can help this critical skill develop over time.
Methods: Surgery residents in teams of three completed five daily simulations. After each scenario, each team reviewed their performance and jointly completed a scenario-specific team performance evaluation and a 17-item Communication and Teamwork Skills tool. Videos were rated to obtain discrepancy values. Paired-samples t-tests and mean comparisons were used to examine changes in team self-assessment accuracy and comparisons between high-performing and low-performing teams.
Results: Resident (n=30) teams rated team performance higher than faculty across the first 3 days (p<0.01), but provided similar ratings thereafter. Agreement of team performance from day 1 to 5 significantly improved (p<0.001). Teams rated their teamwork higher than faculty across all days (p<0.01). Top performing teams provided more accurate self-assessments for both teamwork (average discrepancy 8% vs 39%) and team performance (average discrepancy 12% vs 23%).
Conclusion: Teams that continue to work together over time may become more accurate judges of their own performance, but do not become more accurate assessors of teamwork competencies. © Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2020. No commercial re-use. See rights and permissions. Published by BMJ.