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Showing results for tags 'Ergonomics'.
Found 139 results
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Content Article‘Systems thinking’ is often recommended in healthcare to support quality and safety activities but a shared understanding of this concept and purposeful guidance on its application are limited. Healthcare systems have been described as complex where human adaptation to localised circumstances is often necessary to achieve success. Principles for managing and improving system safety developed by the European Organisation for the Safety of Air Navigation (EUROCONTROL; a European intergovernmental air navigation organisation) incorporate a ‘Safety-II systems approach’ to promote understanding of how safety may be achieved in complex work systems. Authors of this paper, published by BMJ Open Quality, aimed to adapt and contextualise the core principles of this systems approach and demonstrate the application in a healthcare setting.
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Content ArticleOver 300 health and social care staff died in the UK during the first COVID‐19 wave. There are concerns regarding infection risks but there has been very little discussion or research on personal protective equipment (PPE) design. To understand how PPE changes clinical tasks, Hignett et al. conducted an online survey between (via Twitter, LinkedIn, etc.) 4 April and 8 May 2020, when there was a peak of 33,173 deaths. They focused on human factor/ergonomic issues to avoid preconception bias about availability to ask with regard to fit and comfort, reading and operating equipment, hearing and communicating, reaching and moving, and dexterity to use touch screens, press buttons, open vials/taps and use syringes.
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Content Article
Patient safety in oral surgery
PatientSafetyLearning Team posted an article in Dentist
This article from the British Association of Oral Surgeons (BAOS) highlights that these clinicians perform a high volume of multi-site complex procedures, on anxious patients who are frequently conscious, that have the potential for error to occur. -
Content ArticleHuman factors and ergonomics (HFE) approaches to patient safety have addressed five different domains: usability of technology; human error and its role in patient safety; the role of healthcare worker performance in patient safety; system resilience; and HFE systems approaches to patient safety.
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MedLed: What is systems thinking?
PatientSafetyLearning Team posted an article in Organisational
In this article, Human Factors Consultant, Jayne Higgs, talks about systems thinking. She highlights the different components that contribute to systems thinking (including human factors) and argues that this approach can aid a move away from a narrow-perspective blame culture. -
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RCOG: Video briefing on human factors and situational awareness
Claire Cox posted an article in Maternity
Each baby counts is the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologist's national quality improvement programme to reduce the number of babies who die or are left severely disabled as a result of incidents occurring during term labour. Watch the Each baby counts human factors video for information on how to address issues within your unit. -
Content ArticleBen Tipney and Vikki Howarths' presetation on Human Factors in practice. This presentation covers: an introduction to human factors human factors training implementation of human factors in practice new initiatives.
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Content ArticleSafety in aviation has often been compared with safety in healthcare. This article, published in JRSM Open, presents a comprehensive review of similarities and differences between aviation and healthcare and the application to healthcare of lessons learned in aviation.
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Content ArticleTo address increasing patient demands and acuity, the Calgary Health Region is renovating the intensive care units (ICU) at three of their adult acute care sites. Before finalising the design plans, mock-up rooms were created at two of the sites according to several proposed room designs in order to identify potential issues during the design phase of the project. All necessary equipment was included within each of the two mock-up rooms so as to nearly replicate a functioning ICU. Evaluations of equipment, room layout and conflicts were accomplished using patient simulation of a cardiac arrest, an acutely ill patient, a palliative care patient and the admission of a new patient. Digital videos, think aloud audio tracks and extensive debriefing sessions were combined and analyzed. Specific category issues were identified including the articulating arms, visibility of the patient monitors, equipment usability, collisions with equipment, and communication issues. Elaboration of each issue and presentation of design recommendations is given.
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Content Article
10 quality indicators for clinical consultation (2016)
Dr Gordon Caldwell posted an article in Clinical leadership
The process of clinical consultation defines diagnosis and is crucial to patient safety and patient outcomes However the process is frequently weak resulting in care erring off path. These indicators (taken from a paper in Postgraduate Medical Journal) could provide a way to identify weaknesses and areas for improvement.- Posted
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Content ArticleResearchers have shown that people often miss the occurrence of an unexpected yet salient event if they are engaged in a different task, a phenomenon known as inattentional blindness. However, demonstrations of inattentional blindness have typically involved naive observers engaged in an unfamiliar task. What about expert searchers who have spent years honing their ability to detect small abnormalities in specific types of images? We asked 24 radiologists to perform a familiar lung-nodule detection task. A gorilla, 48 times the size of the average nodule, was inserted in the last case that was presented. Eighty-three percent of the radiologists did not see the gorilla. Eye tracking revealed that the majority of those who missed the gorilla looked directly at its location. Thus, even expert searchers, operating in their domain of expertise, are vulnerable to inattentional blindness.
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Content Article
Museum of failure
Claire Cox posted an article in Miscellaneous
Museum of Failure is a collection of failed products and services from around the world. The majority of all innovation projects fail and the museum showcases these failures to provide visitors a fascinating learning experience. Every item provides unique insight into the risky business of innovation.The idea for the museum was born out of frustration. ‘I was so tired of reading and hearing the same boring success stories, they are all alike’ says the museum’s curator, Samuel West. ‘It is in the failures we find the interesting stories that we can learn from.’ Innovation and progress require an acceptance of failure. The museum aims to stimulate discussion about failure and inspire us to have the courage to take meaningful risks.Could we learn from our 'failures' in healthcare in the same way? -
Content ArticleThis guidance is issued by the Health and Safety Executive, the Institution of Engineering Technology and the British Computer Society. Following the guidance is not compulsory but if you do follow the guidance you will normally be doing enough to comply with the law in Great Britain where this is regulated by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE). HSE inspectors seek to secure compliance with the law and may refer to this guidance as illustrating good practice.
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Content ArticleIn a new instalment of the Profiles in Improvement series from the US based Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI), Patricia McGaffigan describes her healthcare journey and why the safety movement needs a “reboot.”
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Content ArticleGetting to grips with human factors – strategic actions for safer care is a learning resource from the Clinical Human Factors Group (CHFG) that recognises the fundamental impact boards have on safety within their organisation. The aim of the resource is to encourage boards to invest time and resource in human factors, by raising awareness of human factors and demonstrating how human factors impact on quality, safety and productivity in healthcare. It is intended to be thought provoking, encouraging board members to think about themselves and their organisation whilst also providing practical actions that boards and individual members can and should be making in this area.
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Content ArticleThis edited book concerns the real practice of human factors and ergonomics (HF/E), conveying the perspectives and experiences of practitioners and other stakeholders in a variety of industrial sectors, organisational settings and working contexts.
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Content ArticleIn his book, Atul Gawande discusses how today we find ourselves in possession of stupendous know-how, which we willingly place in the hands of the most highly skilled people. However, he notes that avoidable failures are common and the reason is simple: the volume and complexity of our knowledge has exceeded our ability to consistently deliver it - correctly, safely or efficiently. The checklist manifesto shows how the simplest of ideas could transform how we operate in almost any field.
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Content ArticleSteven Shorrock is an interdisciplinary humanistic, systems and design practitioner interested in human work from multiple perspectives. The term 'human factor' is rarely defined, but people often refer to reducing it. In this blog, Steven asks what are we actually reducing?
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Content Article
Human error: models and management
Claire Cox posted an article in Improving patient safety
In this BMJ article, James Reason discusses how the human error problem can be viewed in two ways: the person approach and the system approach. Each has its model of error causation and each model gives rise to quite different philosophies of error management. Understanding these differences has important practical implications for coping with the ever present risk of mishaps in clinical practice. -
Content ArticleThe Health and Safety Executive have taken a topic-focused approach to human factors. These topics have proven to be key issues based on research, consultation with industry and intermediaries, and inspection experience.
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Content ArticleRebus Medical spoke to Professor Chris Frerk, about his interest in human factors, its patient safety benefits and the power it may have to influence procurement decisions. Chris Frerk is a Consultant Anaesthetist and Chair of the Medical Equipment Committee at Northampton General Hospital, which is responsible for procuring around two million pounds worth of medical equipment for the hospital every year.
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Content ArticleHuman Factors (Ergonomics) is the study of human activity (inside and outside of work). Its purpose as a scientific discipline is to enhance wellbeing and performance of individuals and organisations. A number of different definitions of Human Factors exist. The key principles are the interactions between you and your environment both inside and outside of work and the tools and technologies you use. This webpage from NHS Education Scotland (NES) provides links to a number of useful Human Factors resources used in healthcare. Topics include: Training Culture Leadership Systems Thinking Communication.
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Content ArticleEnhanced Significant Event Analysis (enhancedSEA) is a NHS Education for Scotland (NES) innovation which aims to guide healthcare teams to apply human factors thinking when performing a significant event analysis, particularly where the event has had an emotional impact on staff involved.Follow the link below for:guidance on how to perform enhancedSEA the updated report format, new Guide Tools, a short e-learning module basic educational resources on human factors science and practice.Although enhancedSEA was developed and tested with primary care teams the approach is also highly suitable for any health and social care setting.
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Content ArticleThis was the first Chartered Institute of Ergonomics and Human Factors (CIEHF) Pharmaceutical Sector group organised event, where the systems and human factors challenges of labelling and packaging were discussed by a wide-ranging audience across the healthcare and pharmaceutical sectors.
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Content ArticleThe purpose of this guide is to help leaders and managers in businesses and organisations make their office workspaces safe for staff returning to work and reduce the transmission of the COVID-19 virus. This process begins with putting together a competent team and undertaking a risk assessment and staff survey to inform decision-making. Businesses are encouraged to consider the workplace as a whole system so that in mitigating a risk in one part of the work system, unintended consequences are not created in another. For example, new ways of work lead to increased workload/stress and reduced collaborative working.
