Human Factors in Critical Care (MEDI90110)

Every day in healthcare, experts are making split second life-or-death decisions. These are often made when the information they have is scarce or incomplete. Health professionals react rapidly to emergency circumstances performing complex procedures from memory.

 

Human Factors is the science of redesigning the environment, the equipment, the training and processes to ensure every decision is well-informed and every action is performed accurately.  

 

Human Factors Engineering principles can help guide us in designing the work to be safer and more efficient. For example, redesigning how emergencies are managed to ensure the correct decisions and actions are taken, even when stress levels are high. 

 

It’s about optimizing the role of the human within the system and designing with health professionals and patients in mind. 

 

This subject will provide the student with an introduction to the science of Human Factors/Ergonomics (HF/E) as applied to critical care medicine and clinical care. It will discuss the scope of HF/E, key concepts and tools in Human Factors research and engineering and emerging views of safety science.

Students will apply HF/E principles to their own context and consider how traditional methods of safety can be extended with new techniques.

 

Topics covered will include:

• Safety II and resilience engineering in improving health care delivery.
• The role of translational simulation in testing and refining processes in health.
• Factors affecting risk perception.
• How clinical decision-making can be affected by environmental and organisational considerations.

 

Teaching/learning formats include:

• Online modules
• Discussion boards
• Required readings
• Case studies
• Written assignments
• 1-day intensive, face-to-face workshop including simulation activities, guest speakers which will be delivered on campus and online for students unable to attend campus.
• The informal exchange of insights and experiences among participants is a key aspect of learning.