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Showing results for tags 'Work / environment factors'.
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Content Article
This document is accompanied by: general advice and advice for hospital inpatients supporting information for healthcare staff including background and findings posters in English and Welsh Health and Safety Laboratory report FS/06/12 ‘Fire hazards associated with contamination of dressings and clothing by paraffin based ointments’ examples of products containing paraffin warning / hazard stickers for products a patient safety video leaflets in English and Welsh. Although the deadline for actions has passed, this guidance remains best practice. It should be followed to prevent future patient safety incidents.- Posted
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- Health and safety
- Patient harmed
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Content Article
Re-ACT Talks – child deterioration: human factors (March 2015)
Claire Cox posted an article in Paediatrics
In this short film, Dr Peter-Marc Fortune discusses the role of human factors in the recognition, response and escalation of the deteriorating child.- Posted
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- Work / environment factors
- Deterioration
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Content Article
The ‘C’ word (May 2017)
Claire Cox posted an article in Other countries and national agencies
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- Organisation / service factors
- Skills gap
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Content Article
How do you initiate change within a pressure cooker?
Anonymous posted an article in Florence in the Machine
Working in healthcare has never been so demanding. The demand outweighs capacity in most services. There is a constant need for patients to be ‘flowing’ through the system. So much so, that there is little capacity for deviation from pathways that we have set up for certain groups of patients to enable their care to be ‘safer’. Our staffing templates and bed occupancy has no wiggle room for the ebbs and flows within the system at different times. Winter pressures now span from mid-summer to late spring – it just feels like the status quo. Having a busy day used to be every now and again, it seems that busy days are just the norm now. It is relentless. The huge machine that is ‘the acute Trust’ keeps turning. If you slow up due to covering staff sickness, a swell in emergency department admissions, a swell in ‘failed discharges’ you will tumble around this machine and be spat out at the end of the day with a little less resilience to when you started. There are times when we get sent an email from Comms. "We are experiencing high volumes of admissions and a low number of discharges – this is an internal critical incident". I often read this email a week later. Staff who are doing the clinical work often have no access to a computer at work as the computer is used for looking at clinical results or used by the ward clerk. Plus, when will there be time? An email telling us to work harder and be more efficient by people in their Comms room is as helpful as an ashtray on a moped. At times, us frontline staff feel as if we are being told to ‘work harder, discharge more patients, be quicker, be more efficient and while you are fighting the fire... innovate and give safer care. Innovation is rife within the healthcare system. I see it on a daily basis. Small pockets of great people doing amazing things. How are these people implementing their innovative ideas in an environment where there is little room for a full lunch break? Good will. Often, these people have been driven to innovate in their area due to an unforeseen circumstance. They may have been involved in a safety incident, a never event, bullying or just wanting to make their job easier. Ideas often start small, then grow. What was a seemingly 'simple fix’ has now turned into a beast. A band 5 nurse may introduce a new way of working. They do this alongside their full-time clinical role, often in their own time. They stay late, they come in early, they send emails on their day off, they read up on the theory behind their initiative. Great ideas and solutions are made everyday in our healthcare system by dedicated, passionate people. It is in our nature to ‘fix’ something that is broken: bones, wounds, people… healthcare? Is this pressure cooker of a place producing the ‘right type’ of solution? Or are we just papering over the big issues such as bullying, poor leadership, pay and conditions, management of long-term conditions, staffing… the list goes on. It feels as if we are putting sticking plasters over gaping cracks; it may work for a while, for that ward, that department, that Trust – but it needs to be more robust than that. We can not rely on the goodwill of our front-line clinicians to come up with the solutions.- Posted
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- Nurse
- Safe staffing
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Content Article
This poster was created by the Royal Free Nursing team on the intensive care unit. It demonstrated how they reduced turnover of staff on the unit by implementing 'Joy in Work'. -
Content Article
Caring for doctors, caring for patients (November 2019)
Claire Cox posted an article in Workforce and resources
In two studies, researchers found that doctors with high levels of burnout had between 45% and 63% higher odds of making a major medical error in the following three months, compared with those who had low levels. To ensure well-being and motivation at work, and to minimise workplace stress, people have three core needs, and all three must be met. A - Autonomy/control – the need to have control over our work lives, and to act consistently with our work and life values. B - Belonging – the need to be connected to, cared for, and caring of others around us in the workplace and to feel valued, respected and supported. C - Competence – the need to experience effectiveness and deliver valued outcomes, such as high-quality care. The review identified inspiring examples of organisations that meet these three core needs for doctors. An integrated, coherent intervention strategy will transform the work lives of doctors, their productivity and effectiveness, and thereby patient care and patient safety. -
Content Article
Museum of failure
Claire Cox posted an article in Miscellaneous
The museum is curated by Dr. Samuel West, licensed psychologist, PhD in Organisational Psychology.- Posted
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- Perception / understanding
- Physical environment
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Content Article
Why is psychological safety being ignored?
Claire Cox posted an article in Motivating staff
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- Communication problems
- Stress
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Content Article
WHO: From cooks to counsellors: keeping patients safe from harm
Claire Cox posted an article in WHO
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- Work / environment factors
- Team culture
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Content Article
Thinking, fast and slow, by Daniel Kahneman
Claire Cox posted an article in Recommended books and literature
Why is there more chance we'll believe something if it's in a bold type face? Why are judges more likely to deny parole before lunch? Why do we assume a good-looking person will be more competent? The answer lies in the two ways we make choices: fast, intuitive thinking, and slow, rational thinking. This book reveals how our minds are tripped up by error and prejudice (even when we think we are being logical), and gives you practical techniques for slower, smarter thinking. It will enable to you make better decisions at work, at home and in everything you do.- Posted
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- Confirmation bias
- Decision making
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Content Article
Presented by Sidney Dekker, Safety Differently: The Movie tells the stories of three organisations that had the courage to devolve, de-clutter, and decentralise their safety bureaucracy. It is a story of hope; of rediscovering ways to trust and empower people and of reinvigorating the humanity and dignity of actual work.- Posted
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- System safety
- Work / environment factors
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Content Article
Healthcare for offenders (last updated October 2019)
Patient Safety Learning posted an article in Prison setting
Guidelines and information on: healthcare in prisons in England healthcare for offenders in the community in England healthcare for offenders in Wales Community Sentence Treatment Requirements National Partnership Agreement for Prison Healthcare in England 2018-2021.- Posted
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- Prison
- Prison warden
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Content Article
In this report the CQC have seen much good and outstanding care, in particular around: responsiveness staff interactions with patients effective treatment leadership and engagement with staff and patients. However, there were a number of areas where services needed to make substantial improvements: governance clinical audit safety culture.- Posted
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- Hospital ward
- Appointment
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- Hospital ward
- Appointment
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- Care goals
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- Follow up
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- Diagnosis
- Monitoring
- Routine checkup
- Reports / results
- Clinical process
- Work / environment factors
- Competence
- Caldicott Guardian
- Accountability
- Communication
- Culture of fear
- Duty of Candour
- Organisational development
- Organisational culture
- Leadership style
- Just Culture
- Organisational Performance
- Safety culture
- Safety management
- Team culture
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- Hierarchy
- Standards
- Clinical governance
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Content Article
Work as is done, work as imagined
Anonymous posted an article in Florence in the Machine
I work in, both, the work imagined and prescribed, but practice in the world of work done. It’s interesting working in both worlds and has made me ask these questions: Why this happens? What are the consequences? How can we manage this disconnect? Real-life scenario What happened? A patient on a ward needs a nasogastric tube (NGT) for feeding and giving medication due to an impaired swallow following head and neck surgery. The nurse prints off the policy for placing an NGT from the Trust's infonet. The nurse inserts the NGT and checks the policy on how to test if it is in the correct position. The tube could be in the stomach (the right place) or it could be placed in the lungs (not a great place for medicines and feed to go!). The nurse calls the nurse in charge for support. It’s been a long time since she has placed an NGT and she wants to check she iss doing the right thing. The senior nurse arrives, before the feed is commenced. The senior nurse notices that the policy that the nurse is using is out of date. Checking the position of NGTs had changed. The senior nurse prints out the updated policy – NGT was in the correct position. This was a near miss event. So what? If an NGT is in the lung and you give medication and liquid feed there is a high chance the patient would contract fatal pneumonia at worst or a protracted stay on the intensive care unit on a ventilator at best. In both these cases, it would need to be declared to the regulators as they are classed as serious incidents. What next? This incident was one of many near misses that were collected over four shifts. This incident was discussed with the Deputy Chief of safety within that Trust. His first reaction was: "When was this? We had a Datix last year of the same incident – why has this happened again and why don’t I know?" It was true, there were a few similar incidents last year and an action plan was put in place to mitigate another incident like this happening again. All the old policies were to be removed from the infonet and replaced with the updated versions. Not only this, the Trust was now moving towards a web-based search facility that enables the clinician to have all the updated evidence for policies, antibiotic therapies, prompt charts, documentation and prescribing advice. The guide would be updated and the old policies would automatically be replaced, thus mitigating clinicians using out of date policies and procedures. The document management system was put in place to ensure it is easier to do the right thing. So, if this forcible function was in place, how did this incident happen again? Not all staff know about the new document system. Some nurses think this search facility is for doctors only. Nurses are prohibited to use their mobile phones on the ward. Clinicians not always able to get to a computer. It takes too long to update when opening the browser – therefore people are using it offline. The final point is an interesting one. Making it easy to do the right thing is one of a number of aspects that a safe system is comprised of; however, if part of that system i.e. the Wifi is not set up to support the change, that system is at risk of a ‘work around’. Work arounds are what healthcare staff do to enable them to get through that shift without immediate detriment to themselves or the patient, make swift complex decisions easily and to ‘tick the box’. Time is a precious commodity, especially when you are a frontline worker. We know the document management system will have the updated policy; we wait for the download. We wait. We wait a bit longer. Eventually it loads. Remembering it takes a long time, we save it and use it ‘offline’ for future access. By using the guide offline makes it quick and easy. We are using Trust policy; however, that policy may now be out of date. So what? Implementation of this online guide was made to make our lives easier and safer for patients and ourselves. Due to an oversight of how clinicians ‘actually’ use and interact with this change in the work environment, it could have an adverse outcome for patients. How would the safety team know this was happening? Near misses seldom get reported. Chance meetings in corridors, chance conversations overheard, a reliance on staff that may know the answer – if we ‘fixed’ the problem for that near miss, why should we report it? No harm came to the patient after all. We have a good culture of reporting in the Trust; however, our safety team are overwhelmed with incidents to investigate. The current system is set up to investigate when harm has happened rather than seeking out ways to prevent harm. I’m part of the problem, so I can be part of the solution? I would welcome any support on this. Does anyone have any solutions or strategies in place where frontline staff are involved in the reporting of near miss events and are part of the solution to mitigate them?- Posted
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- Near miss
- Hospital ward
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Content Article
Human error: models and management
Claire Cox posted an article in Improving patient safety
Key learning points Two approaches to the problem of human fallibility exist: the person and the system approaches. The person approach focuses on the errors of individuals, blaming them for forgetfulness, inattention, or moral weakness. The system approach concentrates on the conditions under which individuals work and tries to build defences to avert errors or mitigate their effects. High reliability organisations—which have less than their fair share of accidents—recognise that human variability is a force to harness in averting errors, but they work hard to focus that variability and are constantly preoccupied with the possibility of failure.- Posted
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- Cognitive tasks
- Distractions/ interruptions
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Content Article
Professor Peter Brennan's top ten tips for making life work better
Claire Cox posted an article in Motivating staff
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- Fatigue / exhaustion
- External factors
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