The first edition of Handbook of Human Factors and Ergonomics in Health Care and Patient Safety took the medical and ergonomics communities by storm with in-depth coverage of human factors and ergonomics research, concepts, theories, models, methods, and interventions and how they can be applied in health care. Other books focus on particular human
Increased concern for patient safety has put the issue at the top of the agenda of practitioners, hospitals, and even governments. The risks to patients are many and diverse, and the complexity of the healthcare system that delivers them is huge. Yet the discourse is often oversimplified and underdeveloped. Written from a scientific, human factors
The occurrence of failures and mistakes in health care, from primary care procedures to the complexities of the operating room, has become a hot-button issue with the general public and within the medical community. Around the Patient Bed: Human Factors and Safety in Health Care examines the problem and investigates the tools to improve health care quality and safety from a human factors engineering viewpoint—the applied scientific field engaged in the interaction between the human operator (functionary, worker), task requirements, the governing technical systems, and the characteristics of the work environment. The book presents a systematic human factors-based, proactive approach to the improvement of health care work and patient safety. The proposed approach delineates a more direct and powerful alternative to the contemporary dominant focus on error investigation and care providers' accountability. It demonstrates how significant improvements in the quality of care and enhancement of patient safety are contingent on a major shift from efforts and investments driven by a retroactive study of errors, incidents, and adverse events, to an emphasis on proactive human factors-driven intervention and the development of corresponding conceptual approaches and methods for its systematic implementation. Edited by Yoel Donchin, representing the medical profession, and Daniel Gopher, from the human factors engineering field, the book brings together experts who have collaborated to present studies that reveal a wide range of problems and weaknesses of the contemporary health care system, which impair safety and quality and increase workload. The book presents practical solutions based on human factors engineering components and cognitive psychology, and explains their driving principles and methodologies. This approach provides tools to significantly reduce the number of errors, creates a safe environment, and improves the quality of health care.
Implementing safety practices in healthcare saves lives and improves the quality of care: it is therefore vital to apply good clinical practices, such as the WHO surgical checklist, to adopt the most appropriate measures for the prevention of assistance-related risks, and to identify the potential ones using tools such as reporting & learning systems. The culture of safety in the care environment and of human factors influencing it should be developed from the beginning of medical studies and in the first years of professional practice, in order to have the maximum impact on clinicians' and nurses' behavior. Medical errors tend to vary with the level of proficiency and experience, and this must be taken into account in adverse events prevention. Human factors assume a decisive importance in resilient organizations, and an understanding of risk control and containment is fundamental for all medical and surgical specialties. This open access book offers recommendations and examples of how to improve patient safety by changing practices, introducing organizational and technological innovations, and creating effective, patient-centered, timely, efficient, and equitable care systems, in order to spread the quality and patient safety culture among the new generation of healthcare professionals, and is intended for residents and young professionals in different clinical specialties.
Human factors relates to the interaction of humans and technical systems. Human factors engineering analyzes tasks, considering the components in relation to a number of factors focusing particularly on human interactions and the interface between people working within systems. This book will help instructors teach the topic of human factors.
Research suggests that ergonomists tend to restrict themselves to two or three of their favorite methods in the design of systems, despite a multitude of variations in the problems that they face. Human Factors and Ergonomics Methods delivers an authoritative and practical account of methods that incorporate human capabilities and limitations, envi
The fourth edition of the Handbook of Human Factors and Ergonomics has been completely revised and updated. This includes all existing third edition chapters plus new chapters written to cover new areas. These include the following subjects: Managing low-back disorder risk in the workplace Online interactivity Neuroergonomics Office ergonomics Social networking HF&E in motor vehicle transportation User requirements Human factors and ergonomics in aviation Human factors in ambient intelligent environments As with the earlier editions, the main purpose of this handbook is to serve the needs of the human factors and ergonomics researchers, practitioners, and graduate students. Each chapter has a strong theory and scientific base, but is heavily focused on real world applications. As such, a significant number of case studies, examples, figures, and tables are included to aid in the understanding and application of the material covered.
Design for Health: Applications of Human Factors delves into critical and emergent issues in healthcare and patient safety and how the field of human factors and ergonomics play a role in this domain. The book uses the Design for X (DfX) methodology to discuss a wide range of contexts, technologies, and population dependent criteria (X's) that must be considered in the design of a safe and usable healthcare ecosystem. Each chapter discusses a specific topic (e.g., mHealth, medical devices, emergency response, global health, etc.), reviews the concept, and presents a case study that demonstrates how human factors techniques and principles are utilized for the design, evaluation or improvements to specific tools, devices, and technologies (Section 1), healthcare systems and environments (Section 2), and applications to special populations (Section 3). The book represents an essential resource for researchers in academia as well as practitioners in medical device industries, consumer IT, and hospital settings. It covers a range of topics from medication reconciliation to self-care to the artificial heart.
Developed to promote the design of safe, effective, and usable medical devices, Handbook of Human Factors in Medical Device Design provides a single convenient source of authoritative information to support evidence-based design and evaluation of medical device user interfaces using rigorous human factors engineering principles. It offers guidance
A single coherent source of information on the various interlinking domains of patient safety, litigation and ethical behaviour, based on accounts of real-life situations and intended for all healthcare students, specialists and administrators.
