Aviation is not the only industry: healthcare could look wider for lessons on patient safety

Shaw, Joanne; Calder, Keith

doi:10.1136/qshc.2008.028340

Cited by 13 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 5 publications

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“…Table 1 summarises how aviation compares with healthcare. Some authors have expressed reservations about the analogies between aviation and healthcare, 5 – 9 and others have noted that industries such as mining 10 and metal manufacture 11 may provide just as valuable safety lessons as aviation. Amalberti et al.…”

Section: Aviation Versus Healthcare: How Comparable?mentioning

confidence: 99%

Aviation and healthcare: a comparative review with implications for patient safety

et al. 2016

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Safety in aviation has often been compared with safety in healthcare. Following a recent article in this journal, the UK government set up an Independent Patient Safety Investigation Service, to emulate a similar well-established body in aviation. On the basis of a detailed review of relevant publications that examine patient safety in the context of aviation practice, we have drawn up a table of comparative features and a conceptual framework for patient safety. Convergence and divergence of safety-related behaviours across aviation and healthcare were derived and documented. Key safety-related domains that emerged included Checklists, Training, Crew Resource Management, Sterile Cockpit, Investigation and Reporting of Incidents and Organisational Culture. We conclude that whilst healthcare has much to learn from aviation in certain key domains, the transfer of lessons from aviation to healthcare needs to be nuanced, with the specific characteristics and needs of healthcare borne in mind. On the basis of this review, it is recommended that healthcare should emulate aviation in its resourcing of staff who specialise in human factors and related psychological aspects of patient safety and staff wellbeing. Professional and post-qualification staff training could specifically include Cognitive Bias Avoidance Training, as this appears to play a key part in many errors relating to patient safety and staff wellbeing.

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Section: Aviation Versus Healthcare: How Comparable?mentioning

confidence: 99%

Aviation and healthcare: a comparative review with implications for patient safety

et al. 2016

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“…The concept of organisational safety culture first emerged from the nuclear industry in the mid-1980s and is defined by the level of commitment of an organisation and its employees toward "values, attitudes, and patterns of behaviour" to successfully manage and improve health and safety [1,2]. Since then understanding and promoting safety culture has been accepted as a challenging yet critical process across a number of high risk industrial sectors including aviation mining [3][4][5] and more recently healthcare [6][7][8]. To be effective this culture requires the workforce share perceptions of the importance of safety and also engage in generating ideas that can reduce 'risk, accidents and ill health' [9][10][11][12].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A comparative assessment of two tools designed to support patient safety culture in UK general practice

et al. 2021

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Background The NHS has recognised the importance of a high quality patient safety culture in the delivery of primary health care in the rapidly evolving environment of general practice. Two tools, PC-SafeQuest and MapSaf, were developed with the intention of assessing and improving patient safety culture in this setting. Both have been made widely available through their inclusion in the Royal College of General Practitioners’ Patient Safety Toolkit and our work offerss a timely exploration of the tools to inform practice staff as to how each might be usefully applied and in which circumstances. Here we present a comparative analysis of their content, and describe the perspectives of staff on their design, outputs and the feasibility of their sustained use. Methods We have used a content analysis to provide the context for the qualitative study of staff experiences of using the tools at a representative range of practices recruited from across the Midlands (UK). Data was collected through moderated focus groups using an identical topic guide. Results A total of nine practices used the PC-SafeQuest tool and four the MapSaf tool. A total of 159 staff completed the PC-SafeQuest tool 52 of whom took part in the subsequent focus group discussions, and 25 staff completed the MapSaf tool all of whom contributed to the focus group discussions. PC-SafeQuest was perceived as quick and easy to use with direct questions pertinent to the work of GP practices providing useful quantitative insight into important areas of safety culture. Though MaPSaF was more logistically challenging, it created a forum for synchronous cross- practice discussions raising awareness of perceptions of safety culture across the practice team. Conclusions Both tools were able to promote reflective and reflexive practice either in individual staff members or across the broader practice team and the oversight they granted provided useful direction for senior staff looking to improve patient safety. Because PC SafeQuest can be easily disseminated and independently completed it is logistically suited to larger practice organisations, whereas the MapSaf tool lends itself to smaller practices where assembling staff in a single workshop is more readily achieved.

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“…Fatigue and stress are known to negatively influence performance in the ICU [23], and non-technical factors such as team communication, situation awareness, and decision making frequently underlie error [4]. However, there are also a number of general critiques that can be made in the comparisons drawn between aviation and health care [24-26]. For example, owing to the catastrophic consequences associated with in-flight safety failures, there are positive perceptions (and a general awareness) of safety culture throughout aviation.…”

Section: Comparisons Between Aviation and The Intensive Care Unitmentioning

confidence: 99%

Teamwork and team training in the ICU: Where do the similarities with aviation end?

Reader

Cuthbertson

2011

Critical Care

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The aviation industry has made significant progress in identifying the skills and behaviors that result in effective teamwork. Its conceptualization of teamwork, development of training programs, and design of assessment tools are highly relevant to the intensive care unit (ICU). Team skills are important for maintaining safety in both domains, as multidisciplinary teams must work effectively under highly complex, stressful, and uncertain conditions. However, there are substantial differences in the nature of work and structure of teams in the ICU in comparison with those in aviation. While intensive care medicine may wish to use the advances made by the aviation industry for conceptualizing team skills and implementing team training programs, interventions must be tailored to the highly specific demands of the ICU.

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Aviation is not the only industry: healthcare could look wider for lessons on patient safety

Cited by 13 publications

References 5 publications

Aviation and healthcare: a comparative review with implications for patient safety

Aviation and healthcare: a comparative review with implications for patient safety

A comparative assessment of two tools designed to support patient safety culture in UK general practice

Teamwork and team training in the ICU: Where do the similarities with aviation end?

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