Healthcare Human Factors Course

The healthcare field has many daily human factors challenges. The objective of human factors training is to help to prevent conflicts, incidents and accidents arising due to human factors, with the goal of creating an open, caring and motivational working environment and optimising customers' safety.

I have extensive experience in offering Crew Resource Management (CRM) courses for aviation and I want to bring my Human Factors experience and knowledge to other safety-critical industries, such as healthcare. Healthcare courses comprise a similar set of core fundamentals to Crew Resource Management with specialised material for the relevant industry. I can provide a pre-prepared course to you, or tailor a course to your specific needs - please contact me for more information.

What is  "The Human Factor"?

The term "human factor" refers to a theoretical knowledge of psychology. The human factor encompasses actions we take in response to stimuli (information processing). These actions, both latent and active, contribute to outcomes in both positive and negative ways. Human Factors are all of the considerations that affect humans at work and human performance. Performance is affected by the surroundings, human interaction and one's own performance limitations. 

Examples of the elements in Human Factors training include:

• Human performance & limitations
• Threat & error management
• Communication
• Co-operation
• Leadership
• Human error & reliability
• Situational awareness
• Vigilance and monitoring
• Decision-making
• Culture
• Personality
• Automation
• Teamworking
• Stress
• Workload management
• Surprise & startle
• Resilience
• Fatigue

Example: Shift Working

Workers fighting normal circadian rhythms and their natural sleep/wake cycle have their effect both on the human body, and on workplace performance.

Some of the challenges faced during an overnight shift might include:

• Higher customer volume per staff member.
• Higher possibility of patient injury/death.
• Reduced staffing.
• High workload, often including equipment maintenance, strained patient interactions, medication preparation and dealing with emergencies.
• Difficulties in communication and decision-making brought about by fatigue.

The course will give you the tools and understanding to achieve a safe and open atmosphere in your organisation, through preventing errors, conflict, incidents and accidents. This will lead to an increase in patient well-being and trust, as well as an improvement in quality and safety of service.

Benefits of Healthcare Human Factors Training

Healtcare resource management training offers a variety of benefits, helping you to improve interpersonal skills and recognise human limitations and performance in your day-to-day processes and interactions. Attitude and behaviour are directly connected and the role of customer interactions in safety cannot be overlooked.

In addition to the elements listed above, training also improves:

• Patterns and ways of thinking
• Actions and reactions
• Work performance
• Quality of service
• Individual well-being
• Financials
• Customer safety & satisfaction

If you want me to organise a course for you or your company, please contact me.