CHFG Blog
Give SEIPS a Chance
There is a trend in modern organisations to ban the use of TLAs (three-letter abbreviations) in work communications. In human factors terms, this is a Good Thing: abbreviations are divisive – separating and excluding those who don’t happen to be familiar with them;...
Letter from the Patron Professor Sir Ian Kennedy
I’m delighted to have accepted an invitation to join Clinical Human Factors Group (CHFG) as a Patron. What, you may ask, does a Patron do? Well, as I see it, my job is to lend my support to CHFG, to raise the profile even more, to be an ambassador where it matters...
Jonathan O’Reilly, @TheQI_Guy explores the synergies between Quality Improvement and Human Factors with Heather Shearer and Nikki Davey.
Specifying, buying, assessing any healthcare products? Editable checklist
Specifying, buying and assessing healthcare products presents one of the best opportunities to control risks to patients (and staff) safety. 2019 to 2020 saw 54,812 patient safety incidents identified as being related to medical devices and equipment. This figure is...
Human Factors and Ergonomics at the London Nightingale Hospital
"On a winter’s morning in April 2020, we approached the London Excel centre transformed by the pandemic and the predicted first wave into the NHS Nightingale Hospital, London (NGL). For some of us it was the first time out since lockdown started to join a new team,...
The making of CHFG eLearning modules
The pandemic magnified human factors and ergonomics issues in healthcare As we grappled with new ways of working, unfamiliar roles and teams, working under intense pressure in newly configured workplaces and if that wasn’t a big enough challenge – the hindrance to...
Susanna Stanford Thought piece on the Ockenden Report
People with an interest in patient safety read the interim Ockenden report with despair. It was immediately and starkly apparent that it repeated many of the common themes which have emerged in other patient safety investigations. Further, as the report...
Martin Bromiley – Lessons under pressure
"Not so long ago I finished 4 years of my life teaching aerobatics. If you ever wanted a time bound place to study humans under pressure this is probably one of the best places to be. And it wasn’t just the trainees under pressure! At the start of the COVID pandemic...
Behaviours to support psychological safety Opinion piece by Martin Bromiley OBE
“Feeling safe enough to express yourself in the workplace” - behaviours to support psychological safety In 2005 my late wife Elaine, mum to our two young children, died during an attempted operation. A skilled clinical team were overcome when an unexpected...
BMJ Article on the importance of design in procurement By Jane Feinmann
NHS Supply Chain has welcomed the CHFG guide to introduce human factors into procurement. Jane Feinmann writes for the BMJ. There are increasing signs that the pandemic is forcing change—with the NHS taking human factors and ergonomics seriously. The...