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Surgery Through a Human Factors and Ergonomics Lens

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Surgical Patient Care

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Abstract

This chapter explores the history and several dominant theories from human factor engineering science and practice. It illustrates how the discipline evolved from aviation accidents in the 1940s, through industrial safety challenges in the 1960s, to consumer products in the 1980s and onwards. Some of the hidden challenges with automation are introduced, illustrating surprises that can occur as a result, and more up-to-date approaches to the integration of human and machine. The importance of design on human performance is discussed, both in terms of user acceptance of new devices and with respect to key design heuristics, with an example of how design can create threats for healthcare staff as well as patients. Three complementary models of human cognition in complex systems are then described—situational awareness, naturalistic decision making, and distributed cognition—which illustrate different approaches to understanding how humans make decisions within different work contexts. Finally, performance-shaping factors are discussed, and a model presented of how threats and errors within the system of surgery can accumulate to create more serious problems that can eventually lead to an adverse event.

“Formal accident investigations usually start with an assumption that the operator must have failed, and if this attribution can be made, that is the end of serious inquiry. Finding that faulty designs were responsible would entail enormous shutdown and retrofitting costs; finding that management was responsible would threaten those in charge, but finding that operators were responsible preserves the system, with some soporific injunctions about better training.”—Charles Perrow, 1984, p. 146

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Anesthesia and Perioperative Medicine, Medical University of South Carolina, Storm Eye Building, 167 Ashley Avenue, Suite 301, Charleston, SC, 29403, USA

    Ken Catchpole BSc, PhD

Authors
  1. Ken Catchpole BSc, PhD
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Ken Catchpole BSc, PhD .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Surgery Ascension Saint Agnes Hospital Armstrong Institute for Patient Safety & Quality, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA

    Juan A. Sanchez

  2. Children’s Cardiomyopathy Foundation and Kyle John Rymiszewski Research Scholar, Children’s Hospital of Michigan, Wayne State University School of Medicine, Detroit, MI, USA

    Paul Barach

  3. Department of Surgery Center for Healthcare Studies Institute for Public Health and Medicine Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University, Chicago, IL, USA

    Julie K. Johnson

  4. Division of Cardiovascular Surgery Johns Hopkins All Children’s Heart Institute Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital, Johns Hopkins University, Saint Petersburg, FL, USA

    Jeffrey P. Jacobs

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Catchpole, K. (2017). Surgery Through a Human Factors and Ergonomics Lens. In: Sanchez, J., Barach, P., Johnson, J., Jacobs, J. (eds) Surgical Patient Care. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-44010-1_4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-44010-1_4

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-44008-8

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-44010-1

  • eBook Packages: MedicineMedicine (R0)

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