Human Factors, Work Performance, and Quality and Safety in Health Care - Essay Example

Human Factors, Work Performance, and Quality and Safety in Health Care Student’s Name Institution Human Factors, Work Performance, and Quality and Safety in Health Care Human factors constitute an important aspect in health care, as they influence the enhancement of patient safety. Human factors help health care personnel and other stakeholders to understand the causes of failures, accidents, and most importantly, the errors that normally occur in health care organisations. It is through a proper understanding of human factors that health personnel can be in the best position to enhance the safety and effectiveness of the health care services provided in various medical organisations. Human factors strongly influence work performance in health care. As a result, they affect the quality of health care and patient safety in medical facilities. This paper, by applying evidence-based literature addressing human factors and work performance, and referring to the human error theory, explains the relationship between human factors and work performance, and the way this connection affects health care quality and patient safety. This paper is divided into subsections to enable it to outline all the main aspects of the topic. The first section, human factors and work performance, provides definitions of human factors and work performance. The second section talks about the relationship between human factors and work performance and explains the way the two concepts are related. The third section explains the effects of the relationship on the quality and safety of health care. Human Factors and Work Performance Human factors refer to organisational, environmental, and job aspects, and human characteristics, which affect the behaviour of workers in a way that can affect the quality and safety of health care (Baysari, Mclntosh, & Wilson, 2008). The job factors in the definition comprise elements such as the health tasks, working environment, workload, the role of the existent procedures, and the designs of controls and displays. The organisation comprises elements such as communications, workplace culture, work patterns, resources, and the management. The individual factors include aspects such as personality, skills, attitude, and competence (Norris, 2009; Proctor & Zandt, 2011). The three elements, including job factors, the organisation and individual aspects, need to be considered together in order to enhance the effectiveness of human factors and interventions. The concept of human factors, in other words, is concerned with what workers are being asked to perform (the job and its characteristics), who is performing the job (the individuals and their qualities), and where the job is done: the organisation and its environs (Carayon, 2012). Work performance refers to a purposeful job or focused behaviour intended to assist the organisation achieve its strategic goals and objectives. For that reason, work performance is one of the most important elements in an organisation, especially a health care oriented one (Simpson, 2009). Nowadays, work performance has become the main leading aspect that shows the purpose for which an organisation exists (Sharkey & Davis, 2008). The purpose, as demonstrated by work performance, constitutes factors such as making profits and developing products and services, which are needed to satisfy societal needs. How employees of a particular organisation perform is greatly influenced by how the organisation is managed; well-managed employees are more likely to record better performance as compared to their poorly managed counterparts (Sandler & Keefe, 2012). This implies that organisations, which want the best work performance, should give a lot of consideration to the elements that affect human factors. Relationship Between Human Factors and Work Performance There is a close relationship between human factors and work performance as it has been proven that human factors principles can be used to improve work processes in every industry, including the field of health care. The relationship between the two elements, for instance, can be seen in the adverse effects that occur in health organisations as a result of workers’ actions and miscommunications (Stanton, 2009). Contrary to the popular thought that communication breakdown among health care teams normally results from the fact that each employee has many tasks to do at the same time, the problem is caused by the nature of the task one needs to do. The main important element to be considered when thinking about communication efficiency within health care is the nature of the task one is expected to do (Crowl, 2007). Tasks that need high amount of concentration should be done one at a time without mixing them with others. Experts of human factors are relied upon to help health organisations register the best possible performance, while at the same time maintaining quality and safety of health care services. This is reflected in the strategic goals of many organisations, which try their best to deliver high-quality medical services to their clients (Sun, Aryee, & Law, 2007). This implies that any design plans at the hospitals should not look at physicians or nurses as only calm and relaxed individuals, but also as medical practitioners who are subjected to fatigue, stress and haste. The design issues need to accommodate any kind of situation that may arise in health care organisations (Crowl, 2007). Human factors are directly related to people as the term suggests; the factors are about identifying and understanding limitations of human beings and then structuring the workplace to accommodate employees with such restrictions to enhance their performance. Human factors professionals normally use evidence-based principles to design the working environment in a way that promotes high employee performance (Salvendy, 2012). For instance, experts may design ways in which hospital staff should perform duties, such as chart medications, moving patients, and handling information electronically. The performance of employees is likely to be improved greatly when such tasks are done electronically through the use of tools, such as hardware (IV pumps) and computer software (Fortune, 2013). It can be said that human factors connect to human interactions, such as organisational culture, teamwork, and communication, and machine interactions. The concept of human factors helps in identifying, designing and promoting work places where people can work best with tools and any other work-facilitating equipment (Stanton, 2009). Human factors require the working environment to be organised and structured in a way that minimises the probability of errors occurring. Human factors work to ensure that human fallibility and limitations are moderated to reduce human errors (Fortune, 2013). The way human factors operate to enhance work performance is explained in the human error theory. The human error theory asserts that human beings are not perfect and as a result, errors can occur at any time at the workplace. According to the theory, even health care professionals are fallible and as a result, prone to making mistakes. Medical professionals can make mistakes in their undertakings or forget to do something; the consequences of these errors may be minor or serious depending on the situation (Bell, 2007). The consequences may be so catastrophic when it comes to health care settings. It is only through paying special attention to human factors engineering that such disasters caused by human error can be prevented (Salvendy, 2012). Effects of Human Factors on Quality and Safety of Health Care It is essential for staff and other employees to take keen notice of the factors and situation that are likely to cause human errors and find ways of reversing such causative factors. This is important more so in health care practices, where human errors are known to cause irreversible disasters (Manser, 2008). As explained in the human error theory, people are not machines that can be controlled to ensure that no errors occur in work processes. It is upon the experts who look into human factors to design a workplace that minimises the likelihood of occurrence of human errors to alleviate or avoid their consequences (Sanchez, 2012). There are a number of factors that increase the likelihood of occurrence of human errors in health care. The main factors are two: stress and fatigue. There is a negative correlation between stress levels and work performance as has been shown by numerous studies (Flin, 2007). High levels of stress are likely to cause poor work performance in health care. Studies also show that very low levels of stress may also become counterproductive. The low levels can cause extreme boredom, which leads to failure to carry out tasks with the required amount of vigilance. Studies also associate fatigue with poor performance and consequently, is considered a great risk factor when it comes to patient safety (Anca, 2007). The knowledge of human factors helps health workers and other medical practitioners to perform their tasks in a manner that avoids harming patients. This is because human factors as a field, provides core knowledge about the relationship between the behaviour of humans, and system design and safety (Spath, 2011). A safety environment of work, which is created through knowledge of human factors, provides a situation in which staff and employees acknowledge their mistakes and find ways to correct them in order to prevent serious consequences. The knowledge of human factors also helps to minimise the likelihood of occurrences of errors by addressing patient safety needs at the institutional level (Lawton & Armitage, 2012). Patient safety needs become more effective when addressed at the institutional or organisational level. The study of human factors recognises that patient needs should be addressed by installing various protocols that do not rely so much on memory (Anca, 2007). For instance, the protocols should be electronically initiated as this would ensure that they become non-dependent on human memory, but computers and other devices. However, the protocols should be of optimum numbers as too many of them may be confusing, especially when they are not regularly updated. Health care staff and employees should be trained on the protocols so that they can become familiar with them to prevent any errors that may occur as a result of such unawareness (Felder, Ajwan, & Zhang, 2008). Conclusion The knowledge of human factors is an important concept in addressing human errors in work environments, especially in health care organisations. The concept of human factors is directly related to patient safety in health care organisations. The concept enhances people’s understanding on how humans interact with tools and equipment that they use to perform the tasks they are given. The concept of human factors and the human error theory provide better understanding of inevitability of human errors and how they can be minimised. The knowledge and principles of human factors can be used to improve work performance of health workers and other medical practitioners to improve patient safety. References Anca, J. M. (2007). Multimodal safety management and human factors: Crossing the borders of the medical, aviation, road, and rail industries. Burlington, VT: Ashgate. Baysari, M. T., Mclntosh, A. S., & Wilson, J. R. (2008). 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