The greatest strength of any pre-hospital provider is the people working within it, the vast majority of whom work incredibly hard to ensure that patients remain safe and have positive experiences. However, it is vital to acknowledge the challenges these clinicians work under, time pressures, high stakes, imperfect information and dynamic conditions. It is these challenges that add additional complexity to pre-hospital care and can lead to subsequent error.
Human factors in pre-hospital care will take an iterative approach by describing the conditions and culture that can lead to harm at three separate levels
Micro (internal) level - We address the effects of stressors on the clinician’s ability to make accurate and safe decisions. How does acute stress affect our performance? How can cognitive bias derail our diagnostic accuracy? How do we know when to rely on intuition or take a more analytical view? All of these will be addressed.
Meso (interpersonal) level - The complexity of the pre-hospital environment demands a team approach. The emotional safety and shared decision making that can come from well formed teams can be vital in the delivery of safe care. However, when does the cohesive team risk becoming a tribe and how does this impact patient safety?
Macro (organisational) level -There is a clear link between the delivery of safe care and the degree of safety people feel toward their organisation. Are organisations choosing to learn or blame when things go wrong? How can leaders make it easier for staff to do the right thing, or inadvertently make it more difficult? How can we make our staff feel safe and supported, allowing a healthy reporting culture?
This is a hybrid course with 2 Face to Face sessions held at Midlands Air Ambulance HQ, Shifnal, Shropshire.
- Get to know you session (90 min): Tuesday, 9th September
- Define “Human Factors for Healthcare”
- Share how this concept addresses the flexible relationship between internal cognition, interactions/team dynamics and the external environment/conditions under which work is undertaken
- Provide the opportunity to get to know each other, share backgrounds, agree on
expectations and establish individual needs
- Build a sense of trust that leaves all parties with the feeling that this training will be a
two-way process
- Module 1 (in person): Tuesday, 23rd September - Midlands Air Ambulance
- Patient Safety & Human Factors - Present & Future: Establish what we mean by Safety I and Safety II. Determine the difference between simple, complicated and complex systems. Ascertain what a “systems thinking” approach means within Human Factors. Allow you to consider Safety Differently and Safety III. Look at how ideas introduced within Complex Systems fit with classical understanding of adaptation
- Module 2 (virtual): Tuesday, 7th October - Online
- Just & Learning Cultures: Identify the difference between cultures and climate. Introduce the concept of a Just & Learning Culture. Develop ideas of how to understand violations within Complex Systems. Acknowledge the role of subcultures and their impact on both climate and culture. Apply the concepts of understanding causation in complex systems to the context of incident investigations.
- Module 3 (virtual): Tuesday, 21st October - Online
- Human Cognition - To err is human: Help you to recognise situations that an individual’s ability to perform optimally is impaired perform. Review the short and long term effects of stress on an individual’s capability to analyse how people make decisions in high pressure situations
- Module 4 (virtual): Tuesday, 4th November - Online
- Factors between humans: Explore what high performing teams may look like in your organisation. Discover how the nature of complexity may impact on team dynamics. Appreciate the potential of constructivist language within high performance environments. Recognise the importance of high trust behaviours within teams and groups. Present approaches to feedback to increase group learning and maximise improvement
- Module 5 (virtual): Tuesday, 18th November - Online
- Creating conditions for high performance: Discuss the role of a leader within a high performance environment. Recommend approaches that enable a high support environment. Offer principles of good teaching. Propose what constitutes a positive learning environment. Investigate the role of design within the working environment and its impact on safety
- Module 6 (in person): Tuesday, 2nd December - Midlands Air Ambulance
- Putting learning into practice: Ask what are the main messages and takeaways for you from each session? Encourage you to reflect on the implications of this for you, in your role as a facilitator of change and improvement. Give you an opportunity to present and get peer and expert feedback on an implementation plan, presentation, project, training session, or initiative you plan to action, individually or as a team, after the programme concludes
You will be required to attend all the sessions to complete the course.
For further information please contact educationandtrainng@midlandsairambulance.com
For other MAAC courses please visit https://www.midlandsairambulance.com/education/clinical-education/
