Human Factors: Affect Everyone, Involve Everyone

The NHS Patient Safety Syllabus highlights human factors as a core education theme for all healthcare staff. Despite this, no multidisciplinary Human Factors courses in NHS Wales have previously been reported.

A multidisciplinary Human Factors course was created and delivered by a faculty with varied clinical and teaching backgrounds. The 1-day course included an introductory lecture, themed workshops and discussion about practical applications using pre-filmed simulations. A pre-course handbook and online platform facilitated consolidation of the learning.

To date, we have run three courses with a total of 83 attendees: 38 doctors, 34 nurses, three managers, three midwives, two physician associates, one dentist, one pharmacist and one physiotherapist. All attendees were requested to complete pre-course and post-course questionnaires to ascertain their level of learning and knowledge gained. The majority, 62.0% (49/79) reported having minimal or no prior human factors teaching, clearly identifying the need for education. Confidence about human factors increased by 65.2% (17.7% [14/79] to 82.9% [68/82]), and awareness of the impact of human factors increased by 39.5% (54.4% [43/79] to 93.9% [77/82]) following the course. Qualitative feedback suggested that the course was well delivered, engaging and interesting. Comments also showed the learning would help attendees improve their clinical practice by sharing their knowledge.

This multidisciplinary pan-speciality Human Factors course has proven its need and value for all healthcare professionals. Next steps include increasing the number of courses delivered and widening the reach across the Health Board as well as gathering evidence on the patient safety implications.