Safe Care - Human Factors

Keeping patients safe in our NHS healthcare systems is a huge priority, and research shows that an understanding of human psychology in the design of healthcare systems helps keep patients safe. Through our long-standing collaboration with healthcare psychologists in the Yorkshire Quality and Safety Research Group the Improvement Academy is able to provide a range of Human Factors training and support aimed at healthcare clinicians and managers.

The Challenge

Keeping patients safe in our NHS healthcare systems is a huge priority. There is an emerging consensus that advancing the implementation of Human Factors across the healthcare workforce may have a large impact on reducing harm. Training in Human Factors has been shown to improve safety in various industries but we are still learning about how to adopt and implement this within our NHS.

In our region we already have significant Human Factors expertise and enthusiasm on this subject. There are already organisations that have started exploring, developing and implementing some great Human Factors approaches across the region but much of this work is not widely known about or is not easily accessible to all our organisations and the frontline teams who deliver care.

Human Factors can be defined as:

“Enhancing clinical performance through an understanding of the effects of teamwork, tasks, equipment, workspace, culture and organisation on human behaviour and abilities and application of that knowledge in clinical settings”

Catchpole, 2010

There is an emerging consensus that advancing the understanding of Human Factors across the healthcare workforce may have a large impact on reducing harm. Training in Human Factors has been shown to improve safety in various industries and we are learning about how to adopt and implement this within the NHS.

What are we doing about it?

The Improvement Academy has worked closely with academic psychologists in the Yorkshire Quality and Safety Research Group and the Yorkshire Patient Safety Translational Research Centre to develop a suite of resources to support staff understand more about the theory and practice of preventing patient harm.

Online Human Factors Training

There are a variety of online courses available that provide an introduction to Human Factors. Some example courses are listed below; please note that links to external courses does not equate to endorsement of the course or course content.

eLearning for Healthcare – Human Factors and Ergonomics for Patient Safety Level 1
Future Learn – Human Factor in a Healthcare Environment

Human Factors one-day workshop

For clinicians and managers who want to go further and understand more, we have a day face to face Human Factors (silver level) training programme. Check our events page to find the next available course.
*Note: Delegates will be required to complete Bronze level training before signing up for Silver level.

Understanding causes of accidents in healthcare

The Yorkshire Contributory Factors Framework is the first evidence-based framework of accident causation in hospitals aimed at optimising learning and addressing causes of patient safety incidents. This has been adapted to create a version that is suitable to use in mental health care environments.

Just Culture Network

The Just Culture Network has been formed in Yorkshire and Humber to increase understanding of what causes patient safety incidents and to facilitate the uptake of Human Factors approaches that keep both patients and staff safe.

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