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Here we share some thoughts, insights and ideas related to Human Factors Training
Trevor Dale

Human Factors & Patient Safety Updates (Oct18)

In this edition:
  • Civility Saves Lives
  • Group GP appointments - a breeding ground for error?
  • Waverley BIG Awards Finalist
  • Human Factors in Practice
  • Free conference this November

Civility Saves Lives

Civility when dealing with colleagues and patients may seem like stating the obvious, but sometimes what should happen in theory isn't what happens in practice. 

Civility Saves Lives is the self-funded, collaborative project led by Dr Chris Turner, a Consultant in Emergency Medicine. 

Why does civility matter? Uncivil behaviour not only greatly impacts the reciepent, but it is also proven to have an extended impact beyond the recipent. At Atrainability, we refer to this as 'Mood Contagion'. 

Many professionals have been on the receiving end of rudeness, belittling and bullying. Most are told or feel like 'that's just the way it is'; but if the NHS truly wants a Culture Change behaviours and attitudes at all levels need to adjust. The project aims to raise awareness of what can be done, whilst sharing stories from other professionals as well as relevant, evidence based academic papers.

Atrainability's Trevor Dale has recently been speaking about the importance of civility at Patient Safety Collaborative for Kent, Surrey & Sussex. If you'd like to find out more about how Human Factors training and Civility fit hand in hand, request more information by emailing team@atrainability.co.uk. 

We also highly reccomend taking some time to look at Christine Porath's work. Her book 'Mastering Civility - A Manifesto for the Workplace' has recieved excellent reviews in The New York Times as well as from high profile authors and leaders.



​Group GP appointments - a breeding ground for error?

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There has been a recent report about the NHS considering group GP appointments as an option to help alleviate the waiting time for patients and in an attempt to manage the growing shortage of GPs.

 Although further details on this are needed, we at Atrainability believe that this could very well be a potential breeding ground for Human Factors error, our main concerns from a Human Factors perspective include:


 • BEHAVIOUR & COMMUNICATION: The patient relationship with their GP, being confident to raise real concerns. How does the GP manage a room with some extraverted (verbose) people and some introverted (more private & more inwardly driven)?


 • SITUATION AWARENESS: Potential error when adding correct patient notes to correct individual files - how will this be managed from a group sessions?


 • CONFIRMATION BIAS: A group may have similar symptoms, but will this lead to the same path of care? The correct diagnosis? Could things be missed? 


Are you a GP? 

We'd appreciate your thoughts on the subject. Email us in confidence: team@atrainability.co.uk.



​Waverley BIG Awards Finalist


You may know that we've been training health and social care teams across the UK for the last 16 years, however you may not realise that we're classified as a small business. Which is why we are delighted to have been selected as a finalist for Waverley's B.I.G Awards 2018 in the category of 'Customer Delight'. We'll keep you updated on the results which will be announced on 19 October.


​Human Factors in Practice


We were recently copied in on communications from a client to another organisation who were enquirying about our services. We have been granted permission to share this with you: 

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Sent 19 September 2018 
Subject: Human Factors in practice 

Hi __________ I'm sorry to have taken so long to reply. We are six weeks in to our annual CQC inspection activity – what is perverse is I am responding to you on today of all days as today is the first day of the actual well-led inspection! 

I have to say, embracing Human Factors was the start of our journey and absolutely the right place to start. There is no other way to, in NHS terms, make the shift from compliance to continuous improvement, or it is likely you would regress back to a compliance focus. Embracing Human Factors tackles capability, by that we mean confidence, competence and capacity. Most other approaches cannot do this and that means you lose staff engagement from the outset. 

I am glad to hear that you are looking to improve the safety culture in your organisation. That shows a lot of insight on your part – a lot of organisations tackle just "culture", which then takes things down an OD direction. Also, culture is a funny term, we do need to break it down into its component parts and Human Factors tackles component parts that other approaches cannot. 

As a direct consequence of our Human Factors work, we have now moved away from audit to improvement and now each team is worked with, as an MDT, to look at their safety performance and we also undertake a patient safety culture survey. This has revealed things to us that our typical assurance mechanisms have not, e.g. we would assume our incident reporting profile equals a safety positive culture, but perception of staff shows that there is still work to do. 

We have used The Health Foundation Model to help us improve how we measure and monitor safety, however having been on the journey, you can't just implement that, Human Factors needs to be grounded in all you do first. I have seen many organisations where Human Factors becomes something that is led by OD and becomes associated with "communication" – Human Factors is much more than that. 

Taking a look at your organisation, it looks like not only do you have a similar profile to us but your CQC ratings are almost identical. We are rated Outstanding for Caring which we put down to, in part, our work in relation to Human Factors. The Safe domain is always a difficult one to shift – let's hope this inspection changes that! Feel free to come and see us or we will come and see you, if you have any questions. We are also open to partnering on things. However I would revisit offers from Human Factors providers first as that really is the foundation. 

Of course my experience is of using Atrainability and there are many reasons for that, aforementioned, in-house approaches risk this being seen as a communication thing, whilst other companies do not tap into the SME that experts in the airline industry have. We have used Atrainability to train what we call "culture carriers" or then have spread and sustained this approach in what has then developed into our patient safety improvement (safety management system) work. 

Atrainability also did two bespoke sessions with our Board, as that demonstrated to our staff the commitment of the Board. So I would suggest you need a programme of works that tackles all levels of the organisation for this to work – we didn't know it at the time, but we used the dosing model which you are probably familiar with. That will help you present any proposals to your Board as this is an evidence based way of building capability in a sustainable way. 

Good luck on your Human Factors journey! 

David Wood, 
Associate Director of Safe Services Cheshire & Wirral Partnership NHS FT​


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​Reminder! Free Future of Healthcare Conference this November


​Atrainability are proud to be speaking alongside Roy Lilley, Cara Charles-Barks (Salisbury NHS), Dr Mohammad Al-Ubaydli, Mark Coooke (NHS England SW) & Dr Felix Jackson at The Future of Healthcare Conference, which is free to attend event on 6 November in Exeter. 

The conference brings you speakers from a wide spectrum of specialties. The aim is to inspire & teach NHS staff from all departments, as well as patients, on how to adapt to systems change in a way that brings about efficiency & value. Addressing two of the fundamental themes of Future Focused Finance. Find out more here & don't forget to follow the event organisers @nhsFFF on Twitter.

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