Bridging the gap between work-as-imagined and work-as-done (PSA, June 2017)

Summary

To improve the safety and quality of healthcare, we try to understand and improve how healthcare providers accomplish patient care "work." This work includes synthesising information from a patient's history and physical examination or from a handoff, performing tests or procedures, administering medications and providing information so that patients can make the best choices for themselves. Sometimes this work flows very well and everyone is pleased with the results, but sometimes this work does not unfold in the way that was anticipated. This article, originally published in Pennsylvania Patient Safety Advisory, argues that efforts to improve healthcare work will not succeed without recognising that there is a difference between a theoretical construct of "work-as-imagined" and the reality of "work-as-done".