ABSTRACT
The healthcare system is complex, opaque, and prone to accidents. This provides challenges and opportunities for the human factors and ergonomics (HF/E) practitioner. The current challenges faced by the healthcare HF/E practitioner are primarily of legitimacy. The needs, benets, and value of the HF approach are frequently unrecognized, and the business case can be challenging to justify without explicit regulation. Furthermore, those familiar with some HF/E practices may have a limited understanding of the breadth and depth of the discipline. Communication and collaboration with clinicians and other stakeholders are, therefore, prerequisites for success. To understand this complex environment and work, direct observation, listening, and knowledge elicitation from clinicians and managers are vital. Since the role of HF/E is not necessarily understood (Russ et al., 2013), it is also important to explain in simple terms what your role is and how you can help the delivery of
Practitioner Summary ............................................................................................ 181 The Healthcare System .......................................................................................... 182 Fieldwork in Healthcare ......................................................................................... 183 Improving Response to Incidents ........................................................................... 185 Interventions .......................................................................................................... 187
Quality Improvement .................................................................................... 188 Teamwork Interventions ............................................................................... 188 Technological Solutions ................................................................................ 189 Checklists ...................................................................................................... 189 Multiple Dimensions of Change ................................................................... 190
Conclusion ............................................................................................................. 190 References .............................................................................................................. 191
frontline care. In a hospital environment, this tends to involve assisting with eld investigations, incident analysis, and delivering interventions or training. In each of these areas, the HF/E practitioner can help clinicians to think in new ways about the relationship between humans and other aspects of the system.
