Much of the early research and focus in human factors/ergonomics (HF/E) in healthcare has been in the acute sector. This is partly because the early high profile interest has been from people in acute areas learning lessons from other safety-critical industries who operate in team-based, functionally and critically time bound areas. In trying to learn from other industries we have tended to ignore the fact that the vast majority of interactions between patients and the healthcare system, take place in the primary care setting.

It is our aspiration that the world of HF/E is allowed to influence care delivery in places where the need for resilience, efficiency and delivering safety, despite human vulnerabilities, in both care-givers and patients is perhaps even more important.

In order to do this we needed to understand what is already known or being done around HF/E in primary care. This important piece of work was undertaken by Paul Bowie and his team at NHS Education for Scotland supported and led by the CHFG, and it is with my sincere thanks to all involved that we now have our starting point.

It is clear there is much work to do, but the process of learning requires a realistic understanding of where we are now. With the release of this report we can start to look at primary care with more insight and thoughtfulness. From the CHFG’s perspective we believe the next step will be for academics, HF/E folk and healthcare staff to take this information and collaborate, to identify work that could be practically done in primary care, to start the process of integrating HF/E in day-to-day practice. It is another journey worth taking.
Martin Bromiley OBE
Chair, Clinical Human Factors Group

The executive briefing summary found here Scoping Review Executive Briefing Summary

The full report can be found here Scoping Review Full Report