Abstract: Explores the social and cognitive non-technical skills (NTS) required of nurses practising in general surgical wards, a taxonomy of NTS for general surgical nurses, and identifies the differences in levels of performance of the NTS between experienced and less experienced nurses, by means of applied cognitive task analysis (ACTA). Highlights the association between poor performance of NTS with adverse patient events. Conducts the study in four surgical wards in a metropolitan hospital, using observation and semi-structured interviews with RNs.