Presentation
Strategies to Integrate Human Factors Concepts into Patient Safety Training for Healthcare Professionals
DescriptionBackground: Human factors concepts are key to improving patient safety but not routinely included as part of healthcare curricula. Integrating human factors concepts into existing didactic training for healthcare professionals (HCPs) could accelerate the adoption of human factors techniques by healthcare organizations. Our objective is to describe teaching strategies used to integrate human factors concepts into a patient safety course for pharmacy students, and illustrate how these could be incorporated into educational curricula for other HCPs.
Overview of presentation: The patient safety course is a 3-credit, required course within a top-ranked, Doctor of Pharmacy (i.e., PharmD) Program. This didactic course is taught annually, and since 2017, has been co-led by pharmacist and human factors faculty members. It consists of a large-lecture format for about 150 pharmacy students. Over time, the course has increasingly incorporated human factors concepts and increased focus on error prevention. This presentation will provide an overview of the course and its objectives. It will also describe four specific teaching strategies: 1) novel didactic lecture topics; 2) a framework that summarizes human factors methods for patient safety; 3) active learning exercises developed for students to practice human factors concepts; and 4) novel simulation activities to help HCPs gain relevant human factors skills for improving patient safety.
Teaching strategies: Examples of course lecture topics related to human factors science include the following: teamwork: how to raise a safety concern; decision-making for medication safety; checklists to enhance patient safety; root cause analysis; 1st and 2nd victims of medication errors; patients and families as safety allies; as well as burnout prevention and resilience. A novel framework was developed to summarize human factors methods that can be applied prospectively, in real-time, and retrospectively to improve patient safety. Several interactive assignments were also developed for a large-lecture format, to help trainees learn about and practice patient safety skills. Example assignments include the following: identifying system factors that contribute to patient safety incidents; failure modes and effects analysis (FMEA); and detecting usability problems for patient safety. The course also includes two hands-on, practical simulation activities: 1) reporting a safety incident to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA); 2) a culminating project at the end of the course where pharmacy trainees analyze a realistic medication safety incident, describe contributing causes, and propose solutions to improve patient safety.
Discussion: This course was developed for a Doctor of Pharmacy Program, and thus is most relevant to pharmacy education, but we expect that many of the teaching strategies could be applied to curricula within other healthcare professions. Additionally, some aspects of the course content and related learning activities could be valuable for healthcare organizations or industry leaders who are seeking ways to introduce and strengthen human factors skills among their workforce. Pharmacy students in this course are graded and evaluated via multiple mechanisms, but we have not specifically assessed the effectiveness of human factors activities, which could be the subject of future research. As part of the presentation, we will share lessons learned to help strengthen human factors training, such as techniques to pique students’ interest in human factors at the start of lectures and emphasize the practical application of human factors methods to their upcoming clinical rotations.
Conclusions: To our knowledge, this course is one of the most robust for providing practical, human factors education for pharmacy trainees in the United States. Strategies described in this presentation are expected to inform educational approaches for equipping other HCPs with foundational human factors skills to improve patient safety.
Acknowledgements: We would like to thank the course administrative assistants, especially Jennifer Kawlewski, and the teaching assistants and fellows who have helped support this course.
Overview of presentation: The patient safety course is a 3-credit, required course within a top-ranked, Doctor of Pharmacy (i.e., PharmD) Program. This didactic course is taught annually, and since 2017, has been co-led by pharmacist and human factors faculty members. It consists of a large-lecture format for about 150 pharmacy students. Over time, the course has increasingly incorporated human factors concepts and increased focus on error prevention. This presentation will provide an overview of the course and its objectives. It will also describe four specific teaching strategies: 1) novel didactic lecture topics; 2) a framework that summarizes human factors methods for patient safety; 3) active learning exercises developed for students to practice human factors concepts; and 4) novel simulation activities to help HCPs gain relevant human factors skills for improving patient safety.
Teaching strategies: Examples of course lecture topics related to human factors science include the following: teamwork: how to raise a safety concern; decision-making for medication safety; checklists to enhance patient safety; root cause analysis; 1st and 2nd victims of medication errors; patients and families as safety allies; as well as burnout prevention and resilience. A novel framework was developed to summarize human factors methods that can be applied prospectively, in real-time, and retrospectively to improve patient safety. Several interactive assignments were also developed for a large-lecture format, to help trainees learn about and practice patient safety skills. Example assignments include the following: identifying system factors that contribute to patient safety incidents; failure modes and effects analysis (FMEA); and detecting usability problems for patient safety. The course also includes two hands-on, practical simulation activities: 1) reporting a safety incident to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA); 2) a culminating project at the end of the course where pharmacy trainees analyze a realistic medication safety incident, describe contributing causes, and propose solutions to improve patient safety.
Discussion: This course was developed for a Doctor of Pharmacy Program, and thus is most relevant to pharmacy education, but we expect that many of the teaching strategies could be applied to curricula within other healthcare professions. Additionally, some aspects of the course content and related learning activities could be valuable for healthcare organizations or industry leaders who are seeking ways to introduce and strengthen human factors skills among their workforce. Pharmacy students in this course are graded and evaluated via multiple mechanisms, but we have not specifically assessed the effectiveness of human factors activities, which could be the subject of future research. As part of the presentation, we will share lessons learned to help strengthen human factors training, such as techniques to pique students’ interest in human factors at the start of lectures and emphasize the practical application of human factors methods to their upcoming clinical rotations.
Conclusions: To our knowledge, this course is one of the most robust for providing practical, human factors education for pharmacy trainees in the United States. Strategies described in this presentation are expected to inform educational approaches for equipping other HCPs with foundational human factors skills to improve patient safety.
Acknowledgements: We would like to thank the course administrative assistants, especially Jennifer Kawlewski, and the teaching assistants and fellows who have helped support this course.
Event Type
Oral Presentations
TimeWednesday, March 278:52am - 9:15am CDT
LocationSalon A-4
Simulation and Education