You may be starting to hear the term “Human Factors” more and more within the
veterinary profession (which is great!), but what exactly is the field of Human
Factors, and why do you – as a locum – need to know about it?
To start with… What do we mean by Human Factors?
The study of Human Factors is a well-established discipline across many professions from human medicine to aviation, and more recently, veterinary medicine. Veterinary Human Factors training combines scientific knowledge about the human body, mind, and behaviour to better understand both our capabilities and our limitations – both of which, you will recognise, impact upon the veterinary patient care we deliver.
Put simply, it can be defined as learning how being human can enhance, and not
limit, our performance in veterinary practice.
How often has an adverse event or “near miss” happened (or nearly happened) a
second time?? Have you ever found yourself snapping at a colleagues or client
because you haven’t stopped for a break all day? Factors such as stress and fatigue, barriers to communication, lack of leadership skills, and poor workplace culture are all examples of where Human Factors can prevent the knowledge, skills, and good intentions of our veterinary teams from achieving their intended outcomes and being at their best.
Why is the science of Human Factors relevant to me as a locum?
As locums, we possess the ability to adapt quickly, as well as having a huge amount of skill, knowledge, and experience – both clinical and non-clinical. These things are essential to our roles.
However, simply possessing these skills alone does not automatically lead to safe
patient care - our performance as members of the vet team is impacted by so much more. When we think about it, it seems so obvious! Of course our clinical decisions are better when we are rested, hydrated, nourished, and working within a positive workplace culture where we feel safe to talk about our great results… and our not-so-great ones. Yet how many of us truly prioritise these non-clinical skills when thinking about how we could improve how we work and provide the highest level of care for our patients, as well as reduce the risk of adverse events? Do we truly recognise just how much “Human Factors” impacts our patient outcomes on a daily basis?
Despite our high level of clinical skill and knowledge, how often to we attend to training up our non-technical skills through the CPD we choose? Did you know that just 14% of adverse events in veterinary practice are due to a lack of clinical skill/knowledge? That leaves a lot of events that occur due to all the “other stuff”!
Improving clinical performance and patient safety all starts with knowledge and
awareness. Once we understand what adverse events are happening, and what
factors are leaving the team vulnerable to them, we can take steps to reduce the
chances of, and mitigate the effects of, adverse events in practice: looking at not just what happened, or who was involved, but why and how did it come to happen. And beyond this, who has been hurt and what help do they need?
Creating and supporting this “learning culture” and helping ourselves and our team members to develop and nurture a growth mindset are critical to creating practices and organisations where people feel psychologically safe and can perform at their best for themselves...their team...and their patients.
To interact with other locums check Management For Locums out on socials and join the facebook community!
How would Human Factors training enhance my role in the veterinary team?
Patient safety and reducing the frequency and impact of errors in practice are a big part of Human Factors, but in fact it encompasses a whole lot more. When we focus on ‘as many things as possible going right’ compared with ‘as few things as possible going wrong,’ we will learn so much more.
Learning how all humans have evolved to respond to stress on a physiological level will give you practical tools to switch on your rational brain when faced with a
stressful situation, and not your sympathetic stress response. Recognising just how
much things like tiredness, hunger, thirst and worry impact our clinical decision-
making – and how using established strategies to reduce them will enhance your
performance and wellbeing.
Understanding how to make positive systems changes in your organisation and
contributing to shifting from a blame culture to a “just culture” will enable you and the team you are working with to perform at your best and deliver the highest level of patient care possible.
A workplace in which learning from our good days and our bad days is openly
encouraged at all levels of the team is far more likely to achieve their goals and,
ultimately, will be one that people want to join and stay in. And as a locum, a
workplace you want to return to time and again!
Where can I find out more?
VetLed deliver veterinary CPD in the form of training courses, coaching initiatives,
and positive change programmes to foster high performance in veterinary teams.
Our experience across the fields of healthcare, aviation, Human Factors training,
elite sport and psychology have led to our holistic approach to performance. Start
with our Human Factors Fundamentals taster workshop, our online bitesize CPD
course - Introduction to Veterinary Human Factors, or consider getting your regular practice to book a practice observation day which we’ll use to map out the ideal professional development journey the whole team.
We’ve been running the Veterinary Human Factors Conference annually since 2021
– an inspiring virtual event that builds community and supporting relationships.
This year, we’re excited to be bringing our first-ever open in-person event, the
Veterinary Patient Safety Summit 2024 on 11 th October, supported by the Veterinary Patient Safety Network [join the LinkedIn community here]. The theme for this event is ‘Beyond Error: Cultivating a Culture of Patient Safety,’ and we’re looking forward to a day of collaborative learning on veterinary patient safety in the fantastic Consort E3 Lab at Harper & Keele Vet School. Tickets are available here
To find out more about our veterinary CPD options for vets, vet nurses, and whole
practice teams, visit www.vetled.co.uk or email us on info@vetled.co.uk – we love
hearing from you.
You can also find support here at MFL! We're supporting locums throughout every step of the journey. Join our platform for FREE and get instant access to nationwide shifts!
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