The purpose of this document is to provide health and social care teams with much-needed
advice and guidance on the human-centred design of work procedures such as written
instructions, checklists or flow charts during this period of “crisis management” in response to
COVID-19 and to support the design and re-design of care services and new ways of working.
Implementation of the guidance will contribute to safer and easier to use procedures, which better
support how people work and reduce risks to themselves, patients, carers and others.
This document outlines ten key guidance points that designers of procedures should address at
all stages of its development, implementation and review:
1. What is a Work Procedure?
2. Ensure a Procedure is needed
3. Involve the whole team
4. Identify the hazards
5. Capture work-as-done
6. Make it easy to follow
7. Test it out
8. Train people
9. Put it into practice
10. Keep it under review
An explanation of the discipline of Human Factors and Ergonomics (HFE) and the sub-discipline
of human-centred design are also provided.
