Safety by design: Ten lessons from human factors research

Abstract

Human factors is an academic discipline that focuses on the interaction between humans and devices, processes or technology. More broadly, the term refers to the role of humans in the evolution of error. The application of principles of human factors in the design of technology is called human factors engineering. The related fields of ergonomics, the design of devices to maximize safety and efficiency, and human performance, the study of cognition, attention, memory, perception, communication and

e-Prescribing: characterisation of patient safety hazards in community pharmacies using a sociotechnical systems approach

“…Reliance on memory could lead clinicians to inadvertently make errors when processing e-prescriptions. Indeed, memory lapses have been found to significantly cause errors due to the limits of short term memory, as a result of memory overload 35. The goal of health IT technology such as e-prescribing should be to reduce a healthcare professional's reliance on memory and eliminate the need to perform mental calculations to lower the probability of errors of omission.…”

“…Multiple interruptions and distractions are common in community pharmacies and the presence of such distractions has been demonstrated to contribute to medication errors when handling prescriptions 36. In addition, significant evidence in human factors literature shows that reliance on vigilance to catch errors is unreliable when users perform tasks that require high cognitive load in a busy and chaotic work environment 35. This is because humans are only capable of retaining a limited amount of information in their working memory at a given time.…”

Enhancing Patient Safety Through a Standardized Model of Physiologic Monitoring

“…Standardization is known to decrease the chance of errors because it limits the variety of methods in performing a task (Porto 2001). Adequate training that is planned, provided during non-work hours and allows for the appropriate interaction with a qualified educator is necessary to prevent errors.…”

“…Adequate training that is planned, provided during non-work hours and allows for the appropriate interaction with a qualified educator is necessary to prevent errors. This is especially needed with advances in technology and high staff turnover (Porto 2001). Providing healthcare practitioners with the skills and knowledge for interpreting monitoring information and a process for monitoring patients will increase their capacity to respond to the information and decrease the opportunities for adverse outcomes (Walsh and Beatty 2002).…”

Using Human Factors Engineering in Designing and Assessing Nursing Personnel Responses to Mock Code Training

“…14 The HFE is a science that attempts to better understand the human weaknesses and vulnerabilities that contribute to error and then design systems or processes that minimize the likelihood of error and allow recovery when errors do occur. Human factors engineering (HFE) is a relatively new area in health care research and refers to the roles that humans play in the development of error, specifically the interaction between people and processes, devises, or technology.…”