Introduction:

The principles of human factors aim to understand the “fit” between staff members and their environment. Human factors include equipment design, processes, communication, teamworking, leadership and organisational culture. Understanding these principles can result in reduced human error and therefore beneficial results on quality of care and patient safety [1]. The NHS Patient Safety Syllabus highlight human factors as a core theme of its training for every member of staff across the NHS. Despite this, we were unable to identify any interprofessional human factors training courses in Wales when establishing this concept [2].

Methods:

In Cardiff & Vale University Health Board, we created an interprofessional, multi-speciality human factors course. The course was one full day consisting of a “The Basics” lecture, interactive workshops around the main themes of Human Factors and then discussion about the practical application of Human Factors based around pre-filmed simulations. A pre-course handbook and post-course online platform was also created to allow attendees to consolidate their learning. Content was delivered by a multi-professional multi-speciality faculty.

Results:

The first course, run in January 2024, was attended by 11 doctors, 13 nurses and one physician associate in attendance. All attendees were requested to complete pre- and post-course questionnaires.

The pre-course questionnaire found that only 12% (3/25) of attendees felt confident about human factors and 48% (11/23) of attendees were aware of human factors effects on their clinical work. 74% (17/23) reported having had minimal or no human factors teaching prior to this course. The post-course questionnaire found that 80% (20/25) felt confident about human factors and 88% (22/25) felt aware or very aware of human factors effects on clinical work following attending the course.

Qualitative feedback suggested that the participants found the course engaging, interesting and useful and felt that their learning would help them to improve their clinical areas and share their learning with their colleagues.

Discussion:

This interprofessional multi-speciality human factors course has proven its usefulness and value for all healthcare professionals working within the Health Board. It’s inter-professional nature, has strengthened the learning that attendees gained and proved that human factors really are everyone’s problem. Detailed feedback will be analysed in order to improve upon the courses foundations and further courses will open this education to more Health Board staff.

Ethics statement:

Authors confirm that all relevant ethical standards for research conduct and dissemination have been met. The submitting author confirms that relevant ethical approval was granted, if applicable.

References

1. Health Education England. Human Factors [online]. No Date. Available from: https://www.hee.nhs.uk/our-work/human-factors. [Accessed 19 December 2023].

2. Academy of Medical Royal Colleges. National Patient Safety Syllabus [online]. Version 2.1. 2022. Available from: https://www.hee.nhs.uk/our-work/patient-safety. [Accessed 5 February 2024].

Acknowledgments:

Thank you to the Cardiff & Vale University Health Board Medical Education team for their help and support with this course.