TITLE:
Promoting Clinician Well-Being and Patient Safety Using Human Factors Science: Reducing Unnecessary Occupational Stress
AUTHORS:
Michael R. Privitera
KEYWORDS:
Human Factors, Ergonomics, Leadership, Work Environment, Burnout, Latent Medical Error, Patient Safety, Clinician Wellbeing, Cognitive Load, Experience of Providing Care
JOURNAL NAME:
Health,
Vol.14 No.12,
December
30,
2022
ABSTRACT: Our healthcare delivery system has accumulated complexity of payment, regulation systems, expectations and requirements. Often these are not designed to align with clinical thinking process flow of patient care. As a result, clinicians are utilizing enormous mental (cognitive) resource to comply with these complexities, over and above the baseline mental effort required to give good care to the patient. Recent studies suggest a significant number of physicians, advanced practice providers and nurses no longer want to stay in healthcare due to difficult work expectations and conditions that have become unreasonable. Technology has benefitted healthcare delivery, but also is a conduit of many expectations that have been grafted upon clinician workloads, exceeding the resources provided to accomplish them. Cognitive load is a measure of mental effort and is divided into Intrinsic, Germane and Extraneous Cognitive Load. Extraneous Cognitive Load (ECL) is what is not necessary and can be removed by better design. High cognitive load is associated with increased risk of both medical error and clinician burnout. Chronic high level occupational stress occurs from dealing with this job/resource imbalance and is showing serious personal health impact upon clinicians and the quality of the work they can provide for patients. Since organizational systems have become more complex, leadership methods, clinician wellbeing and patient safety efforts need to adjust to adapt and succeed. Safety efforts have tended to predominantly follow methods of a few decades ago with predominant focus upon how things go wrong (Safety I) but are now being encouraged to include more of the study of how things go right (Safety II). Human Factors/Ergonomics (HFE) science has been used in many industries to preserve worker wellbeing and improve system performance. Patient safety is a product of good system performance. HFE science helps inform mechanisms behind Safety I and II approach. HFE concepts augment existing burnout and safety interventions by providing a conceptual roadmap to follow that can inform how to improve the multiple human/technology, human/system, and human/work environment interfaces that comprise healthcare delivery. Healthcare leaders, by their influence over culture, resource allocation, and implementation of requirements and workflows are uniquely poised to be effective mitigators of the conditions leading to clinician burnout and latent medical error. Basic knowledge of HFE science is a strategic advantage to leaders and individuals tasked with achieving quality of care, controlling costs, and improving the experiences of receiving and providing care.