ABSTRACT
A review was carried out to look at the scope of healthcare ergonomics (Hignett, 2002) by searching conference publications (Ergonomics Society, [UK], Human Factors and Ergonomics Society [USA],
International Ergonomics Association) and peer-reviewed journals (Applied Ergonomics, Ergonomics, and Human Factors). In just over 10 years of ergonomics research (1989 to 2000), 348 papers were found representing approximately 3% of the total papers. The topics covered ranged from musculoskeletal research (36%) through to accident investigation (8%) as shown in Figure 20-1. It is likely that a review in 2010 would find a different distribution of research work in health care ergonomics due to the increased funding available for patient safety initiatives from about the beginning of the twentyfirst century.
