Human Factors in a Healthcare Context

Question

Human Factors

1. What is one thing you learned from the Human Factors Exercise

Objectives: After completing this exercise, participants will be able to identify human

factors in everyday settings, state how such factors contribute to errors, and develop

strategies to minimize or prevent error.

Think about a location that you visit or use often and are quite familiar with.  It could be

a: 

Restaurant

Coffee shop

Transportation system

Retail store

Hotel

Major intersection

Library

Health care setting

Can you spot human factors issues that create opportunities for errors?

What processes rely on memory?

What tools can be used to eliminate the need to rely on memory?

How well would the processes you observe work if the individual involved were tired?

Distracted?

What types of errors might occur? How would someone know if these error(s) had

occurred?

Are there steps that can be skipped or bypassed? Is this a good or bad design? Why?

Would a new person be likely to make more, less or the same number of errors as an

experienced person? Why?

Are there systems in place ‐‐ or that should be in place – to minimize the opportunities

for error?

Write a 1 paragraph summary of your selected site and human factors that you have

identified that create opportunities for error.  

Discuss the human factors issues identified and the types of processes and tools

put in place to decrease the risk of error (e.g., barcode scanning). 

What human factors issues did you identify?

Are processes/tools in place to reduce the opportunities for error?

How do these reduce the risk of error?

What types of errors could occur with these processes and tools?

Write a 1 paragraph summary responding to the questions above.