Each module is designed to help instructors develop and meet the course objectives within a 50-minute teaching opportunity, but flexibility is encouraged to customize the content or delivery methods to fit your goals and schedules. The use of local data, systems, and cases is encouraged wherever appropriate. While each module is offered in a linear format, that is only one delivery option (there is no "right way"). We encourage you to add, delete, rearrange, and customize the accompanying materials, tools, and references to meet the needs of your particular audience. If you need assistance, either technical or instructional, please contact the CRICO/RMF Patient Safety Education Program Director.
Whatever you create from the Core Curriculum materials will be unique, and of interest to your colleagues. Please use the feedback links located throughout the site to share with us, and future instructors, what worked, what didn't, how your audience responded, and any suggestions for an optimal learning opportunity.
Physicians and other health care providers who have a basic understanding of the science of human factors, as it applies to health care, will be better able to participate in the identification, analysis, and solving of patient safety problems. This program can help leaders and individuals within an organization identify and remedy human factors problems in the way of safe patient care.
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Medical errors represent links in a chain that resulted in potential or actual patient harm. Many errors are now recognized to be preventable. Therefore, a growing movement is underway to improve patient safety.
Recognizing that other high risk industries, notably aeronautics and nuclear industries have reduced error rates and improved safety using principles from psychology and engineering called “human factors engineering,” leaders in patient safety have begun to study and pilot the principles to the medical care arena.
Each clinician and non-clinician working in the CRICO-insured system will be able to:
This brief synopsis may be helpful as a handout to attendees prior to or at the beginning of your program.
Almost daily, we all encounter things that don’t work right. We pull a door that needs to be pushed; we flip the wrong switch to turn off the porch light; we change the station on the TV when we meant to turn down the volume.
And we’re relatively smart.
Of course, it’s not always our fault. Poor design, bad lighting, distraction, miscommunication, and a host of other factors contribute to the inefficiencies in our life. Certainly, these “human factors” are also part of the majority of our lives when things go right. The vast majority of human factors problems have little long term impact, and are disregarded, but a certain percentage do cause serious consequences and will recur if the underlying cause is not addressed. Thus, human factors are not good or bad, simply a component of life.
We just need to pay attention to them more where things can go seriously wrong, for example:
In recent years, the health care industry has realized that mistakes that threaten patient safety are rarely the fault of a misbehaving individual. Instead, the vast majority of medical “errors” are somehow related to “human factors:” i.e.:
Because patient safety is directly linked to human factors, the application of human factors science to health care delivery is essential to curbing preventable errors and reducing patient injuries. For clinicians and other health care workers, the initial step is to gain basic understanding of human factors and how they relate to medical mishaps. This program offers a practical introduction.
And don’t forget: push to open.
