1. Achieve a comprehensive and critical understanding of the range of physical, mental and social capabilities of people and how their strengths and limitations, including biases, mental processing, memory and stress limits need to be accommodated in the design of work systems to ensure patient safety Knowledge and understanding, Professional Requirement

2. Critically evaluate the impact of organisations and organisational factors on individual and team performance, including the impact of company culture (including sub-cultures) and decision making on human well-being, staff performance and reliability, and hence the safety of patients, service users and staff
Knowledge and understanding, Analysis, Professional Requirement

3. Critically analyse and evaluate complex working situations, including the need to manage and support team working, work across team boundaries, decision making, and successful communication, in order to achieve the safety and well-being of patients, service users and staff.
Analysis, Application, Problem Solving, Communication, Professional Requirement

4. Critically reflect on the potential barriers to successful implementation of improvement recommendations, including the impact of leadership, resistance to change and organisational culture
Reflection, Application

Assignment: Produce a Reflective report on applying the lessons learnt from a publicly available Investigation Report to a review of your own organisation’s (or a virtual organisation’s) culture, leadership, teamwork and management. To be submitted end of week 13.

Additional Assessment Details

Summative Assessment:
Select a publicly available investigation report and identify the underlying causes associated with leadership, organisation culture, team and management factors that significantly impacted patient or service user safety. Reflect on the possibility that these factors could be present within your own workplace or a virtual organisation provided for you. Consider what methods you could use to explore this possibility and gather data. How would you use your evidence to develop viable recommendations and solutions? What is the likely resistance to their implementation. This assignment commences in week 1 to be submitted week 13.
This assessment links to all four Learning Outcomes.

Formative Assessments:
During this module you will be given the opportunity to undertake multiple choice tests to check your knowledge and understanding. This links to all learning outcomes.

You will be encouraged to contribute your opinions and answers to topics posed on the discussion board. This links to all learning outcomes.

There will also be an opportunity to undertake a simulation event. This links to learning outcomes 2&3

This module focuses on people, their strengths and limitations and their role in ensuring patient safety. It will address how organisational factors and the management of teams and individuals can support the safety of patients, service users and human well-being.

The following topics will be included:

1. An overview of the relevant human and management sciences, including the theory, concepts and principles appertaining to the strengths and limitations of people.

2. Psychological theories, such as mental models of working systems, and the impact of situational awareness on individual and team performance. You will explore the impact of expectations and personality types on successful performance and the factors that influence decision making.

3. Key human factors principles, legal requirements, standards, frameworks and guidelines. For example: those linked to theories of the impact of sleep and fatigue on performance and the need to consider these factors along with circadian rhythms when designing or agreeing shift patterns and working hours.

4. Tools for assessing and improving Organisational culture and sub-cultures and the theories associated with the impact of culture on team working, risk taking, risk perception, violations and the likelihood of self-reporting errors and mistakes.



5. Achieving successful communications with patients, family, other team members, between teams and across organisational boundaries. This includes the need for patient and family engagement, not just at the point of care but also as co-producers within health and social care system design.

6. The theory of bias such as confirmation bias, interpersonal bias and unconscious bias and the need to expect and manage this.

7. Aspects of managing change and the organisational barriers to implementing improvements

Module 4 - Human Factors for Management of Organisations, Teams and Individuals

We are all different and yet in so many ways we are all the same. Certainly we are all impacted to some extent when teams function poorly or leadership is weak.

This module focuses on how organisational leadership and the management of teams and individuals can support the safety of patients, service users and human well-being. For example:

What is it about the culture of an organisation, and the teams and groups within an organisation, which make risk taking more likely, violations to be accepted and cover-ups to occur?
Why do some people engage with their patients and others do not?
What do we know about the causes of stress and hence the impact of stress at work on our performance and interactions with others? How do we recognise and manage these factors, appropriately supporting ourselves and each other.

And may be the most critical question of all: why, when we hear the same causes of patient safety incidents re-occurring over years, does nothing change – what are the barriers to organisations implementing improvement recommendations?

Initially you will be provided with an overview of the Diploma year. This module will then be introduced with an overview of its structure and topics.

More generally a new topic area will be released each week and once released these materials will remain available for you to use at any time, at your own pace. At the start of each topic there will be an introduction, this will then be supported by specific texts plus a range of additional course materials and formative assessments.

Once again there will be a Discussion Board available to enable you to discuss the concepts presented with your colleagues on the course and with your module lecturers.

As well as undertaking scheduled teaching and learning, you will be expected to undertake guided independent study to consolidate your learning and to complete your summative assignment.

Scheduled teaching and learning activities (45):
video and online lectures, online interactive discussions, on campus exercises, lab work, simulations and discussions

Guided Independent Study Hours (35):
Online materials, tasks and links

Independent Study Hours (125):
Assignment writing, updating your portfolio log book, additional reading and researching

Besnard, D.et al “Safety Culture” working group co-ordinators (2018) Safety Culture – from understanding to action. France: ICSI

Braithwaite, J., Hollnagel, E. and Hunte, G.S. Eds (2019) Working across Boundaries, resilient health care, vol.5. CRC Press

Bridger, R.S. (2018). Introduction to Human Factors and Ergonomics, 4th Edition. Boca Raton: CRC Press

Carayon, P. (2017) Handbook of Human Factors and ergonomics in health care and patient safety. 2nd Edition. Boca Raton: CRC Press

Dekker, S. (2011) Patient Safety – A Human Factors Approach. London: CRC Press

Tsipursky, G. (2019) Never go with your gut: how pioneering leaders make the best decisions and avoid business disasters (avoid terrible advice, cognitive biases, and poor decisions). USA: Career Press

Wears, R. & Sutcliffe, K.M. (2019) Still Not Safe. New York: Oxford University Press

Successful completion of this module will require you to have access to a Computer and good internet access.

Pre-requisites Successful completion of PG Cert - Human Factors for Patient Safety