Overview
Healthcare professionals are human beings, and like all human beings are fallible. In our personal and working lives we all make mistakes in the things we do, or forget to do, but the impact of these is often nonexistent, minor or merely creates inconvenience.
However, in healthcare there is always the underlying chance that the consequences could be catastrophic. It is this awareness that often prevents such incidents as we purposefully heighten our attention and vigilance when we encounter situations or tasks we perceive to be risky.
In 2007 we supported the establishment of the Clinical Human Factors Group, an independent body set up to advise all stakeholders within the healthcare system in the UK on best practice regarding human factors directly affecting patient safety.
The group aims to enhance the knowledge of all healthcare professionals about ‘human factors’ and how to manage more successfully human error. The group has no political or policy agenda other than to define and encourage best practice.
What are we doing?
Over the course of 2010 our continued support will enable the Clinical Human Factors Group to:
- identify high-impact work streams to engage with frontline staff
- set in place a ‘buddy system’, working with the most influential leaders in the NHS to help them develop an understanding of human factors as well as strategies to embed human factors in healthcare
- host a series of ‘human factors seminars’ to facilitate understanding of how humans interact with their environment and those around them, and to use this to improve patient safety by reducing the possibility and impact of errors.