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Taking Forward Human Factors and Ergonomics Integration in NHS Scotland: Progress and Challenges

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Health and Social Care Systems of the Future: Demographic Changes, Digital Age and Human Factors (HEPS 2019)

Part of the book series: Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing ((AISC,volume 1012))

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Abstract

The failure of healthcare systems leads to multiple problems including avoidable patient harms, poor care experiences, psychological impacts on the workforce and costly medico-legal litigation. The urgent need for HFE to be routinely embedded in national healthcare systems is strongly advocated by leading international institutions to better inform solutions to these issues, but policy progress is limited. NHS Scotland has a significant track record in HFE-related research and development, particularly in embedding related principles in education, non-technical skills assessment and training, system-wide hazard identification, learning from safety incidents, measuring safety climate, and integration with quality improvement. However, this work has evolved on an ad hoc basis with no strategic plan for national integration of HFE in priority areas of healthcare policy and practice. To address this gap, four stakeholder workshops with 144 participants representing 27 organisations led to agreement on five priority areas where HFE could ‘add value’: 1. Building workforce capacity and capability by embedding HFE in education and training; 2. Integrating systems thinking into how teams learn from ‘significant events’; 3. Ensuring buildings and workspaces are designed for safety and wellbeing; and adhering to design principles in healthcare technology procurement; 4. Embedding HFE in the design of national safety and improvement programmes; and 5. Exploring the role of a future national HFE expert advisory board to support NHS Scotland. Next steps include engagement with strategic decision-makers (e.g. medical directors, chief executive officers, board members) to inform, influence and ultimately broker the formal integration of HFE in NHS Scotland policy.

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Acknowledgements

We wish to offer sincere thanks to all past and future stakeholder workshop participants for their significant contributions to this evolving work. We also acknowledge and thank the following individuals who have been instrumental in providing leadership, expert support and advice on this national development work: Prof. George Youngson, Dr. Helen Vosper, Dr. Michael Moneypenny, Dr. Ben Shippey, Mr. Craig McIlhenny, Dr. Shelly Jeffcott, Mr. Manoj Kumar, Dr. Nikki Maran, Dr. Al Ross, Dr. Steve Shorrock, Dr. Neil Clark, Prof. Rona Patey, Prof. Rhona Flin, Prof. Rowan Parks, Prof. Sue Hignett, Prof. Ron McLeod, Prof. Jean Ker, Dr. Laura Pickup, Dr. Wendy Russell, Mr. Alistair Geraghty, Dr. Duncan McNab and Dr. John McKay.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. NHS Education for Scotland, Glasgow, UK

    Paul Bowie

  2. Institute of Health and Wellbeing, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, UK

    Paul Bowie

  3. NHS Lothian, Edinburgh, UK

    Simon Paterson-Brown

  4. Patient Safety and Clinical Human Factors, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK

    Simon Paterson-Brown

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  1. Paul Bowie
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  2. Simon Paterson-Brown
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Correspondence to Paul Bowie .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Faculdade de Motricidade Humana, Laboratório de Ergonomia, CIAUD, Universidade de Lisboa, Lisbon, Portugal

    Teresa Patrone Cotrim

  2. Escola Nacional de Saúde Pública, Centro de Investigação em Saúde Pública, Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Lisbon, Portugal

    Florentino Serranheira

  3. Escola Nacional de Saúde Pública, Centro de Investigação em Saúde Pública, Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Lisbon, Portugal

    Paulo Sousa

  4. Loughborough Design School, Loughborough University, Loughborough, UK

    Sue Hignett

  5. Centre for Patient Safety, Tuscany, Italy

    Sara Albolino

  6. Careggi University Hospital, Clinical Risk Management and Patient Safety Center, Tuscany, Italy

    Riccardo Tartaglia

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Bowie, P., Paterson-Brown, S. (2019). Taking Forward Human Factors and Ergonomics Integration in NHS Scotland: Progress and Challenges. In: Cotrim, T., Serranheira, F., Sousa, P., Hignett, S., Albolino, S., Tartaglia, R. (eds) Health and Social Care Systems of the Future: Demographic Changes, Digital Age and Human Factors. HEPS 2019. Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing, vol 1012. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-24067-7_1

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