Title : Why we need more than technical and procedural competencies in themedical industry to improve the team and patient safety
Abstract:
Between 300 and 500 people die every year in plane crashes worldwide. Despite this seemingly high number, the number of preventable deaths annually as a result of medical errors is far greater. Patients die daily due to human errors committed by doctors, nurses and hospital staff. Why then is there such a great emphasis on rules, regulations and standardised simulations and trainings in the aviation industry, but not in the medical sector? How do we define safety and how can we continuously improve this notion? What similarities and differences exist between the aviation and medical industries and what can medical professionals learn from the established human factors and safety trainings already in place for pilots, flights attendants and non-flying staff. And what can aviation learn from medicine? A clear distinction is that trainings in aviation industry focus not only on technical and procedural competencies, but also interpersonal and personal skills. Interpersonal and personal skills must be strengthened for those working with or on patients and a safetyculture needs to be introduced. This will result in proper error management, a positive working environment and ultimately less patients dying due to staff fatigue, a lack of assertiveness and hierarchy. Lufthansa Aviation Training and the German Society of Orthopedic and Trauma Surgery (DGOU) have implemented a new trainings philosophy to strengthen interpersonal and personal competencies. From basic trainings to leadership trainings to assessments in the surgery room, this philosophy encompasses a broad implementation of human factors. The overarching goal is to make hospitals safer and toimprove overall patient safety. During these training, strategies to combat complacency and fatigue are introduced, incidents are openly discussed and risk assessment is fine-tuned. Additionally, the trainings focus on improving communication within the team, providing decision making tools and making individuals aware of their own strength and weaknesses.
Audience Take away:
This speech will emphasise the importance of safety, human factors, team work, decision making and error management for the medical sector. It will stress that human factors trainings must not only continue to develop in terms of subject matter and training methods, but continue to be an integral part of a hospital’s strategy regardless of how safe current operations are. It will critically examine the current methods used in human factors trainings to see what needs to be done preemptively to adapt to the requirements of future generations of trainees and of the medical industry in general. It will highlight the importance of thinking creatively and “outside of the box” to push human factors trainings of the future and patient safety standards. New research results of these trainings and the effects will be presented.
