I recently attended an event in Liverpool on “Clinical Human Factors” which was all about sustaining Quality Improvements in the Health Service. The key note presentation and speaker was Martin Bromley from the Clinical Human Factors Group who is a pilot. Martin gave a very informative presentation both from his professional and personal experience. It was excellent to hear a perspective from outside the Health Service Industry with direct connections to his own wife’s experience inside the Health Service. Many of these messages resonated with my own experience in business and observations/experiences in the Health Service.

So what are Human Factors? Well, it’s long winded so take a deep breath: “The factors that enhance clinical performance through an understanding of the effects of teamwork, tasks, equipment, workspace, culture and organisation on human behaviour, abilities, application of that knowledge in clinical settings”. We need to be considerate and aware of :- Culture, Organisation, Equipment, Tasks, Colleagues, Teamwork, Workspace, Rules, Protocol, Personnel Stress, Alertness, Tiredness, Supervision and Cognitive capacity.

Some of the key messages to come from the presentation of which there were many are:

• When looking to train or improve the skills of personnel, make it real, try to simulate the situation, show them what good looks like, demonstrate the benefits and the real dangers.
• Improve your recognition of non-technical skills, the emotional skills that make the big difference with patients.
• Four big areas of non-technical skills are Situational Awareness, Decision Making, Leadership and Teamwork.
• Do we still focus on “what” happened instead of “why” it happened? Our focus should be our people.
• Do our systems make it easy to do the right things or are we at conflict with each other.
• Do we really make it easy for our people to get it right first time or do our processes conflict with our words and messages.
• Do we use lessons learnt as a tool to continually improve or only when someone complains or makes a claim.
• Staff levels are critical to the continued success of any organisation but what are your critical staff levels and what are they based upon?

So in summary the four big areas to be addressed to ensure they are aligned are:- People, Skills, Process and Equipment. The Culture and Environment we ask our people to operate must be supportive to ensure good performance every day, every time. Do you fully understand the emotional impact of the role you are asking of your people and how that impacts on performance? Human Factors are equally critical and possibly more important in some cases than technical skills.

http://youtu.be/vlX86g0q8rU