Human factors in healthcare: A 360° approach for smarter, safer practice (4 May 2026)

Summary

Healthcare is full of brilliant, dedicated people but the conditions we work in often mean we fall short of the care we want to give. Mistakes aren’t usually the result of bad individuals; they are the predictable outcome of poorly designed systems and cultures that don’t make safety easy. When staff don’t feel supported or listened to, it is almost impossible for them to deliver safe care.

This book was written for the entire multidisciplinary team—doctors, nurses, allied health professionals, managers, educators, students, indeed anyone and everyone involved in delivering or improving care—and is an essential guide to recognising the human and organisational factors that shape our actions and learning how to do better. It draws a straight line from staff well-being and psychological safety, connecting these directly to the techniques needed to deliver safe and effective patient care.

Content

1. Introduction

2. Why errors happen

3. Decision making

4. Situational awareness

5. Checklists/prompt cards

6. Leadership and followership

7. Communication

8. Human Factors and ergonomics

9. The culture needed to improve patient safety

10. Human Factors in simulation

11. Escalating acute deterioration

12. Investigating incidents

13. Afterword—why Human Factors matter

Further on the hub from Rob Galloway on the hub:

• From diagnosis to system change: what rare disease is teaching us about safety, bias and AI

• Patient Safety Spotlight interview with Rob Galloway, Emergency Medicine Consultant at University Hospitals Sussex

• Creating a better work-life balance; implementing annualised self-preferencing/self-rostering rotas