Patient Safety / Simulation and Ergonomics

Out of all my blogs the one that seems to have stimulated most interest was the one I wrote on how simulation should be seen as part of patient safety activity ( click here for that blog )  rather than the typical thought that it is just a form of training and often just resuscitation training at that. Spurred on following some Twitter (@NWSEN) and face to face interactions I wanted to write a blog which built on this work and in particularly looking at the art of the possible and how simulation can, and in fact is, being used to support some of the emerging patient safety concepts.  Remember we are describing simulation as a spectrum of activity ( blog on this is here ) with a variety of underpinning educational theories aligned to the learning outcomes, these learning outcomes can be ones for the individual, team or organisation. Additionally simulation should be a quality assured education event that can be delivered in a variety of ways including with real peo...

Distractions  Following a slight blogging holiday (bloggiday?) I thought it would be interesting to think about distractions - recently I helped deliver a human factors session at Walsall Manor Hospital, supporting a fantastic local Human Factors initiative that had seen a real culture change within the organisation.   The session I led was around distraction and cognition and allowed me over the day to start to draw together the discussions into some type of working model on how to reduce distractions.  The problem Fundamentally, I really do think that distractions are so commonplace in healthcare they are seen as the norm - to such an extent we are blind to them  how many times will the consultant in ED running the trauma call be asked to look at a 12 lead ECG for another patient in majors listen to the melee of alarms screaming for attention in a critical care area the staff member waiting slightly impatiently to discuss another patient while ...