The Importance of Human Factors in Patient Safety

The knowledge of human factors is applied in any field where humans are involved in work. In medicine, human factors help design processes that make it easy for nurses and doctors to their job without exposing patients to unnecessary risks. Human factors applications are relevant to patient safety basic aspects of patient safety are embedded in human factors engineering. Much of health care is reliant on humans- the nurses and doctors- providing care. Experts in human factors believe that, although mistakes cannot be entirely done away with, they can be reduced by focusing attention on health care providers and understanding their interaction with the environment of work. Despite progress in the last 15 years, enhancing patient safety in health care is still an important matter that needs to be improved.

The history of research, safety policies and development has shown that patient safety is more complex than it was originally perceived and is relevant to all health care settings. Resolutions, therefore, must be advanced at the systems level and complemented with a change in safety culture, particularly in higher-risk fields like surgery. Just two decades ago, the Institute of medicine presented a comparison of death occurrences as a result of medical errors to the equivalent of a jumbo jet crashing daily (Fottler et al. It is also estimated that at least 440000 human lives are lost every year due to avoidable errors in health facilities (Johnson et al. Medical checklists are very have proved to improve the efficiency of medical operations by improving the reliability of vital processes by prompting the user to anticipate and adequately prepare for potential hitches.

In surgery, it is during time-out that the team is able to reflect and work through a sequence of questions intended to highlight potential problems. Technological breakthroughs have been made in almost all fields which have made technology an integral part of our lives today. In health care technology has had an instant impact in the ware medical care is provided. It has fostered increased efficiency, reduced cost and improved quality of medical care. A general understanding of the human factors and devotion to human factors principles is fundamental to the discipline of patient safety (Agrawal 7). Comprehensive human factors programs support accurate and appropriate prescribing of dosage and foster a clear information and communications management systems. Experts of human factors help make it easy for health care professionals to achieve their utmost best while caring for patients.

It is significant because the objective of an excellent human factors design is to adequately accommodate all users in a system. The system is designed as though the tasks are not only done by rested, experienced and calm users but also an inexperienced user who may be fatigued, rushing and stressed. Simulation has a greater potential to improve health care and patient safety by allowing practitioners to acquire invaluable experience in various medical setting without exposing patients to unnecessary risks that can be as serious as life-threatening. While there is no doubt on the role technology has played in effective and productive health care, increased complexity and services and systems can bring about unintended impacts in the event so much time is spent operating machines leaving inadequate time to attend to patients.

The ultimate basis of human factors relates to how people process information. Processing information involves acquiring the information, interpreting and responding accordingly. Errors are bound to occur in any of these steps since human beings are not machines. Misperceiving a situation is highly attributed to the brain playing ‘tricks’ on us which contribute to errors (Boxer 31-32). Despite the best of our intent, our decisions and actions can be flawed leading to preventable mistake regardless of intelligence, motivation, vigilance or experience. In the medical care setting, such a situation is described as an error, which may impact on patients heavily. The appropriate human factors platforms make it easier for medical care providers to care for patients. This is only a reality when those platforms are conscious of offering are in the framework of changes such as economic, technological and legal changes.