Patient safety and human factors: human factors resources
The following publications provide an introduction to clinical human factors from a nursing perspective. These publications are available in PDF format - see how to access PDF files.
Clinical human factors in nursing: briefing sheet
This summary is based on a detailed literature review. The work was presented at the RCN Annual International Nursing Research Conference in London, April 2012.
You can download this publication at Clinical human factors in nursing: briefing sheet (PDF 187.6KB).
Nursing Standard series on nursing and human factors
The following series, first published in Nursing Standard, provides an introduction and five articles which look at the relationship between patient safety and human factors. The full text of each article can be downloaded.
Currie L (2012) Introduction to patient safety series, Nursing Standard, 26(32) 11-17 April, p.35 (PDF 635.72KB).
Introduces the series.
Norris B, Currie L and Lecko C (2012) The importance of applying human factors to nursing practice, Nursing Standard 26(32) 11-17 Apr, pp.36-40 (PDF 727.75KB).
Discusses the importance of human factors in nursing and how the principles of human factors can be applied.
Norris B (2012) The diversity of human factors: illustrating the relevance for nursing, Nursing Standard, 26(33) 18-24 April, pp.35-40 (PDF 749.26KB).
Looks at a selection of human factors tools and activities that may be used in nursing practice to improve the safety of patient care including the Human Walk-Around tool and the Foresight training.
Beaumont K and Russell J (2012) Standardising for reliability: the contribution of tools and checklists, Nursing Standard, 26(34) 25 Apr-1 May, pp.35-39 (PDF 771.7KB).
Describes two initiatives from the National Patient Safety Agency (NPSA) - Recognising and responding appropriately to early signs of deterioration in hospitalised patients and How to Guide: Five steps to safer surgery which incorporate tools influenced by a human factors approach and which can help to increase reliability and improve outcomes.
Reid J and Bromiley M (2012) Clinical human factors: the need to speak up to improve patient safety, Nursing Standard, 26(35) 2-8 May, pp.35-40 (PDF 741.85KB).
Uses a case study about poor management of an emergency situation during an operation to demonstrate the role that human factors can have in health care and its importance in interprofessional training. It emphasises the importance of being able to speak up if the safety of a patient is threatened.
Scrivener R and Brown R (2012) Human factors and online learning, Nursing Standard, 26(36) 9-15 May, pp.35-37 (PDF 705.17KB).
Describes how human factors informed the development of an online patient safety course by the Royal College of Nursing and the use of action mapping in designing the course.
To access this learning resource see Online learning.