Barbara L. Wilson
University of Utah College of Nursing
Title: Lessons learned from Human Factors Engineering: Enhancing the quality and safety of nursing care
Biography
Biography: Barbara L. Wilson
Abstract
The identification and elimination of preventable patient safety errors has emerged as one of the most significant quality issues in health caresince the Institute of Medicine’s (IOM) report of errors in healthcare nearly 20 years ago. IOM’s report profoundly heightened concerns over the quality of health care and propelled professional and consumer groups into action, leading to a concentrated focus on various patient safety initiatives. Health care was challenged to create systems that were better able to recognize and respond to error, preventing adverse patient outcomes.
Human factors engineering (HFE) is a science that attempts to better understand which human vulnerabilities lead to mistakes, and then engineer systems that reduce the likelihood of error and allow for recovery and survival when errors do occur. Applied in the healthcare setting, HFE is a method that allows the evaluation of both provider and system-level factors that contribute to patient harm.
Clearly, nurses play a pivotal role in error reduction and patient safety. As the healthcare provider most continuously present with patients, nurses often serve as the last layer of defense in error occurrence. The incorporation of HFE into the clinical setting can both mitigate adverse outcomes and allow for the prompt identification of system-level designs that can contribute to provider error.
This presentation presents and describes 10 HFE strategies that can be easily incorporated into the clinical setting to minimize patient harm (e.g., reduce reliance on memory, reduce reliance on vigilance, minimize handoffs, simplify tasks and processes, provide for reversibility, etc.).
The insurgence of patient safety initiatives has heightened awareness of system and human factors that lead to mistakes in hospitals and other healthcare settings. By understanding and incorporating HFE into the clinical setting, nurses and other healthcare leaders can significantly mitigate adverse patient outcomes.