Human factors for healthcare teams · Periodic certification
Non-technical skills in healthcare: a genuine simulation, with the whole team together.
Nobody watches: everyone is an actor in the situation.
Serious game training for doctors, nurses, pharmacists, surgeons, midwives… and every regulated health profession that works as a team. Communication, leadership, decision-making, stress management: the non-technical skills that the French National Authority for Health (HAS) places at the heart of patient safety.
Designed to fit into the French periodic certification pathway, our sessions take place at your premises. Based in France, we travel throughout the country — and abroad for international teams — with all the equipment.
Qualiopi and French National DPC Agency applications in progress
Why now?
Periodic certification: a requirement for every regulated health profession in France.
Since 1 January 2023, every health professional registered with a professional order in France must show, over a set period, that they have completed training and practice-improvement actions. Monitoring by the orders is governed by a decree of 26 December 2025, and the framework for each profession was published by ministerial order in February 2026.
7
professions concerned
Doctors, dental surgeons, midwives, pharmacists, nurses, physiotherapists, podiatrists.
8
actions minimum
At least 2 actions in each of the 4 areas of your profession’s framework.
6 years
per period
The first period runs until 31 December 2031 for professionals already practising on 1 January 2023.
2026
Ma Certif’Pro Santé
The national online service for declaring actions and tracking your pathway, designed by the French Digital Health Agency.
Official sources (in French): Decree no. 2025-1335 (Légifrance) ↗ · French Digital Health Agency ↗ · French National Council of the Order of Physicians ↗
HAS framework — April 2026
Human factors in healthcare teams: the 8 non-technical skills.
In April 2026, the French National Authority for Health (HAS) adopted a human factors competency framework. It points out that patient safety depends as much on communication, coordination and team decision-making as on technical knowledge. These are exactly the skills our serious games train.
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Decision-making
Deciding under pressure, with incomplete information, and knowing when to revise.
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Situational awareness
Perceive, understand, anticipate — and share the same picture of the situation.
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Workload management
Prioritise, delegate, ask for help before overload.
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Effective communication
Read-back, closed loop, structured handovers, assertiveness.
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Teamwork
Clear roles, mutual support, cross-monitoring, handling disagreement.
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Leadership
Setting direction, allocating tasks, keeping the big picture — and following when needed.
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Stress management
Recognising your own signals and the team’s, avoiding tunnel vision.
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Fatigue management
Understanding its impact on alertness and judgement, and protecting against it.
Source (in French): HAS — Human factors competency framework (non-technical skills), 2026 ↗
Our approach
Deliberately outside the clinical setting.
In a clinical scenario, everyone falls back on their expertise: the discussion turns to the right procedure, the right protocol, who “was right”. Human factors take a back seat.
When the team is placed in an aircraft cockpit, a civil protection crisis unit or an air traffic control room, nobody is the expert. Only the essentials remain: how the team communicates, decides and organises itself under pressure. The debriefing then connects each point to the operating theatre, the delivery room, the pharmacy or the emergency department.
This is the approach that gave rise to CRM in aviation, now used in team risk-management programmes in healthcare.
Aircraft cockpit
Crew communication and decision-making
Civil protection
Crisis management and coordination
The difference
Everyone is an actor. Nobody watches from the sidelines.
Unlike many simulations where a small team plays while the others observe, our serious games immerse the whole team in the same situation, at the same time. Just as in the operating theatre or the delivery room, success depends on everyone.
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A role for everyone
Each participant holds an essential function, with their own information and responsibilities.
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A collective success
The scenario is designed so that nobody can succeed alone: the team has to communicate, coordinate and decide together.
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Real pressure
Limited time, surprises, conflicting information: the tension is lived by everyone, not described.
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A lived debriefing
Everyone debriefs what they actually experienced and felt — not what they watched others do.
A typical day
Healthcare teams under pressure: briefing, simulation, debriefing.
Our sessions follow the HAS good-practice guidelines for healthcare simulation: a briefing that sets a safe framework, hands-on scenarios, and a structured debriefing led by facilitators trained in simulation.
Briefing
Framework, objectives, confidentiality, allocation of roles. Nobody is tricked, nobody is judged.
Simulation
The whole team in a critical situation, at the same time. Everyone has an essential role; two facilitators run the scenario.
Debriefing
Analysis of facts and behaviours, human factors identified, links with your real situations.
Transfer
What the team will do differently as soon as it is back on the ward.
🕒 Indicative timeline of a day (7 hours)
- Morning Welcome & briefing — objectives, confidentiality and supportive framework, introduction to the environment and roles.
- Morning Team simulations — several successive scenarios, lived by the whole team at the same time: everyone has their own role, information and responsibilities.
- Throughout the day Structured debriefings — after each scenario: reactions, analysis of key moments, links with clinical practice.
- End of day Summary & transfer — individual and collective commitments, tools to reuse, certificate of attendance.
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We come to you
Hospital, clinic, practice, health centre or seminar venue: one room is enough, we bring all the equipment.
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Right-sized groups
Groups sized so that every participant is in action in every scenario, with the option of running several groups or several days.
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Also at conferences
Symposium format: one team on stage and an audience taking part — everyone votes and decides live via QR code.
Reference (in French): HAS — Good practice in healthcare simulation (2024) ↗
Your certification pathway
Sessions designed to cover the 4 areas.
French periodic certification frameworks are built around 4 areas shared by every regulated profession. Each session is designed to target one area; you can book several sessions to cover more than one.
1️⃣
Update knowledge and skills
- Non-technical skills from the HAS framework
- Human and organisational factors
- Team communication tools
2️⃣
Strengthen quality of practice
- Team risk management
- Analysing situations and decisions
- Briefings, checklists, cross-monitoring
3️⃣
Improve the relationship with patients
- Communicating under tension
- Listening, rephrasing, clear information
- Dealing with someone in a crisis situation
4️⃣
Look after your own health
- Stress, mental load, fatigue
- Spotting your warning signs
- Individual and collective resources
Recognition in progress. SWIRL has begun the Qualiopi certification process and registration with the French National DPC Agency (ANDPC) ↗. The sessions are designed to fit the periodic certification frameworks; whether they count depends on validation by the competent bodies. We will keep you informed as soon as these recognitions and any funding options are confirmed.
Who is it for?
Every regulated health profession that works as a team.
Our sessions ideally bring together members of the same team — or several professions that work together every day. We work primarily with anaesthesia, intensive care and operating theatre teams, and are open to every specialty.
- Anaesthesiologists & intensivists
- Nurse anaesthetists
- Surgeons
- Operating theatre nurses
- Doctors of all specialties
- Emergency physicians
- Nurses & advanced practice nurses
- Midwives
- Pharmacists
- Dental surgeons
- Physiotherapists
- Podiatrists
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Healthcare facilities
University hospitals, hospitals, private clinics: training for operating theatre, intensive care, emergency and maternity teams.
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Private practices & groups
Anaesthesia practices, surgical teams, health centres, pharmacies.
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Conferences & learned societies
Interactive workshops and symposiums at your conferences and scientific meetings.
Resources
Human factors, soft skills, debriefing: our articles.
Clear guidance based on recognised references.
Serious games for business: definition, benefits and how to choose the right one
What is a serious game, how does it differ from team building or an escape room, and how do you choose the right one for your teams? A complete guide.
Read the article →Soft skills: how to reveal and develop them in a team
Why soft skills are so hard to assess, and how to reveal and develop them in practice within a team.
Read the article →Human factors: understanding why competent people make mistakes
The Dirty Dozen, the Swiss cheese model, situational awareness: the key human factors concepts to understand error and prevent it.
Read the article →FAQ
Questions you may be asking.
Will this training count towards my periodic certification?
Our sessions are designed to meet the requirements of the French periodic certification frameworks, and the recognition processes (Qualiopi, French National DPC Agency) are under way. Once these are obtained, a certificate will allow you to declare the action on your Ma Certif’Pro Santé account. As each framework is specific to your profession, we help you check which area it covers.
Do some participants just observe?
No. The whole team is in the situation at the same time: everyone has their own role, information and responsibilities. That is what makes the experience — and the debriefing — so close to real teamwork in healthcare.
Why a simulation outside the medical setting?
To neutralise the expertise effect. In an environment nobody masters, the discussion is no longer about technique but about what keeps a team safe: communication, roles, decision-making, stress management. The debriefing then translates each lesson to your practice.
Does it complement simulation in a hospital centre?
Yes. Manikin-based simulation trains clinical skills and algorithms; our serious games target non-technical skills, with no need for a technical platform. The two reinforce each other.
Do you work with healthcare teams outside France?
Yes. We are based in France and travel internationally with all the equipment. The link with periodic certification only applies to professionals practising in France; for other teams, the sessions focus on the same non-technical skills.
What do you need on site?
A room, tables and chairs, electricity and an internet connection. We bring the simulation equipment, audio and video equipment and materials.
How much does it cost?
Each engagement is quoted individually, depending on group size, location, number of days and number of areas targeted. Funding options will be specified once the recognitions in progress are obtained.
Further reading
Official texts and references (in French)
- HAS — Human factors competency framework (2026) ↗
- HAS — Good practice in healthcare simulation (2024) ↗
- HAS — Methodological guide to periodic certification frameworks ↗
- Légifrance — Decree no. 2025-1335 of 26 December 2025 ↗
- French Digital Health Agency — periodic certification platform ↗
- French National DPC Agency ↗
Let’s talk about your team.
Specialties, group size, location, target areas: we build a tailored proposal with you.