Human Factor Report Assignment Sample

Introduction

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Human factor refers to as organizational, environmental and behavioral factor of a human which impact the working in an organization. This will have positive and negative impacts on the working of individuals. This includes mental workload, teamwork, and distraction, lack of communication, pressure and stress which impact the human factors. For the current report, two industries are selected ly aviation and healthcare. This report highlights the impact of human factors on the working of the healthcare and the aviation industry. Human factors influence the behaviour of an individual in doing a particular task. It plays an important role in process safety management. Simulators have been developed to maintain safety in the industry. Simulators help in creating an artificial environment for the learners so they can apply their knowledge in real-life situations. Simulators help in better understanding of all the situation and they have scope for error. Life of people is not at stake by using this simulator in both industries. This report also includes various similarities and differences that both industries possess. They also highlight what pilots and doctors could learn from each other to improve their performance and ensure better safety measures for clients. This report also highlights various Human Factor theories used in the healthcare and the aviation industry. Various accidents and incidents have also been highlighted to give a wider understanding of the theories.

Main Body

Simulators within healthcare industry

Simulators are used in training and development programs in an industry. They are referred to as creating an artificial environment which looks realistic and providing training in such situations (Salvendy and Karwowski 2021). Simulators are appliances which are created to provide practical application of the knowledge gained. They are used in the industry to ensure the safety of the individual. The aviation and healthcare industries used such simulations to give training to employees while maintaining the safety of patients.

The following simulators have been used in which are been used in the healthcare industry.

Partial Task Trainers: These are the simulators used in providing specific task training to the workers. Clinical skills such as venous cannulation and endotracheal intubation have been taught through these simulators, as they help in creating real-world situations.

Full-scale simulators: Examination techniques and physical skills needed for the doctors are learned through these simulators (, 2019). An automated dummy has been used as a patient and Learner needs to work on that.

In-Suit simulations: These simulations are often used in high-stress and high-risk environments. This includes providing training in actual clinical scenarios and with actual doctors. This is done to ensure the safety of the patient and train them in the actual environment.

Importance and usage

• Simulation helps in providing training without endangering the lives of staff and patients.
• It creates an opportunity for the learner to apply all the theoretical knowledge in a practical environment. This helps in gaining real-life experience and developing skills and competency to deal with real-life situations.
• Simulation helps learners evaluate their performances and feedback is provided to improve performance. There is a scope of mistakes which they can make and learn from them so whenever the actual situation arises they have the confidence to deal with zero errors.

Simulators in the Aviation Industry

There are various simulators used in the aviation industry which are as follows;

Full Flight Simulators: For providing training for visual and motion capabilities these simulators have been used (Meissner, Rahn and Wicke, 2021). This includes controlling flight and maintaining ground characteristics.

Aviation training devices: These are simulators which help in providing training to learners related to standards of performance and user guidelines.

Importance and usage

• Prior to simulation only theoretical knowledge could be provided to learners which made it difficult to remember in the actual situation. Simulation enables learners to practice the same thing again and again under a safe scenario.
• Simulators help in creating real-life situations with various changes in weather and malpractices of machines (Malcom, Pate, and Rowe 2020). This improves the learner's ability to control aircraft.
• Training through simulators is more effective and efficient as they lead to a decrease in the cost of the organization. They also benefit the environment as they decrease pollution due to lower emissions and no noise pollution.

Similarities and differences between the two industries

Similarities

In both industries, teamwork is important as they need to properly coordinate and communicate with each department for proper working. In the aviation industry crew resource management has been developed for effective communication among pilots and the healthcare industry has also used various sources to improve communications.

Simulators have been used in both industries to reduce risk and enhance safety measures. The healthcare and aviation industries need simulators as both are focusing on the customer and employees' security and safety.

In both industries flexibility in thought process is required as the same knowledge to be applied in different ways in different situations (Webster, Henderson, and Merry,2020). Price transparency has also not been followed in both the industry.

Stress management is needed in both industries as there are plenty of instructions and guidelines which they need to follow at a time. There is no possibility of error in both industries as little error could lead to greater stress.

Differences

The aviation industry provides an environment of honesty and integrity to its employees. This follows a blame-free culture where if incidents occur bigger scenarios will be evaluated rather than blaming a pilot. Whereas in the healthcare industry, no such freedom has been given making doctors petrified.

The aviation industry promotes better leadership style, effective communication, and involvement of employees which leads to better culture (Law, 2022). Whereas in the healthcare industry needs to follow a hierarchical structure which leads to barriers in communication.

In the aviation industry, they are working more systematically through checklists, which help maintain routine work and reduce confusion. The Healthcare sector has worked on this but unable to achieve this with the same efficiency.

While providing training to pilots, non-technical skills such as making, situational awareness, leadership, and stress management have been provided to them, whereas no such training is provided to doctors.

Aspects that healthcare industry could learn from the aviation industry

Transparency and self-reporting: A blue book has been maintained by the pilots for sharing their experience for each flight. They honestly share their mistakes, errors and faults as no one will punish them (Gordon, et. al, 2017). This helps in correcting their mistakes next time, whereas the healthcare industry does not allow a transparent policy.

Customer Orientation: The aviation industry puts many people's lives at stake in a particular flight. All the efforts and goals are to safely transit the people in which they have proven to be successful. The healthcare industry should also focus on designing goals which are customer-orientated in better ways.

Continuous up gradation: The aviation industry provides a regular training program for its pilot as this industry requires skilled human. The healthcare industry is behind in providing such facilities to its doctors.

Aspects that aviation industry needs to learn from the healthcare industry

Managing Heavy Compliance: The healthcare industry needs to follow strict and pervasive rules and regulations which however lead to a decrease in the level of innovation. Despite this healthcare industry has succeeded in exceeding their innovation by managing all the compliance in an effective way.

Focuses on controlling inflation: The healthcare sectors have researching ways to reduce costs as much as possible. They have succeeded in providing medical facilities at low cost as well. The aviation industry should be focused on decreasing the cost so anyone can take advantage of it.

Qualities that doctor and pilot should learn from each other

Doctors from pilots:

 Integrity: pilot shares their true experience from each flight and admit their mistake and errors. They did this for their betterment and followed instructions which were provided by their superior for improvement. Doctors don’t accept their mistakes due to strict rules.

Better communication and leadership skills: It has been concluded from research that almost all pilots take suggestions from each other irrespective of their hierarchical level whereas half of the surgeons don’t involve a junior doctor in their discussion. This creates a communication barrier and has a negative impact on the work.

Pilot from doctors

Calmness and self-restraint: In the worst situation, doctors stay calm and pacific which helps maintain the trust and confidence of the patient. Pilots should gain this quality from doctors to improve their personality.

Stress management: doctors have faced so much stress from their superiors and family members of the patients. They have the quality to manage all this together and solution to the problem. Pilots should learn from them to manage stress in extreme situations.

Theories related to human factor topics

Human factor theories aim at increasing safety, increasing satisfaction of the users and enhancing performance by familiarizing with equipment and processes within the organization (Wilson, el. at, 2020). Two theories have been described below which affect the human factors of both the industry.

Aviation industry:

In the aviation industry, accidents occur due to an overload of work in an industry. It has been identified that if work is assigned to employees who are out of their capability, then this will lead to accidents. Ferrell's human error theory explains that errors occur due to inappropriate responses, inappropriate activities or an overload of work. Ferrell’s theory is effectively applied to the aviator industry as ineffective communication between pilot’s leads to major accidents (Kanki, Anca and Chidester, 2019). Thereafter, CRM was launched for effective communication. Inappropriate responses which are a human error led to the incident which eventually turned into a major accident between two aircraft.

Healthcare industry:

Accidents in the healthcare industry are generally caused by the negligence of the human being and unsafe acts done by the individual (Wang, et.al, 2021). The domino theory proposed by W.H. Heinrich defines that there is a connection between all the factors and factors that are interdependent all accidents are in response to the preceding factor. It has been defined in the theory that 88% of accidents are caused by unsafe acts done by the individual. It also proposes that accidents due to unsafe actions are 10% and 2 % due to acts of gods (Theory of accident causation, 2023). In the healthcare industry accidents are due to unsafe actions and acts. This occurs due to ineffective control by a management team which permits job and personal factors that lead to errors and ultimately result in accidents, accidents lead to loss which can be minor or serious.

Conclusion

It has been concluded from the report human factors plays an important role influencing the behavior of individual toward the work. Simulators in aviation and healthcare are important for translating theoretical knowledge into practical application. Simulators also help in ensuring the safety of the staff members and clients while providing training to them. Stress, work overload, and fatigue are the factors impacting the working of the employees. There are various similarities between both industries such as teamwork. Communication and consumer orientation are the main factors which both industries need to fulfill. There are some qualities that both industries need to learn from each other. A better communication system, better organizational structure, and freedom to speak are the qualities that the healthcare industry should include. Patience, calmness, and stress management are the factors that pilots should learn from doctors to improve their work behavior. Various human factor theories have also been explained and defined which both industries should use for better functioning and reducing error. Ferrell's human factor theory and domino theory have been explained in relation to accidents in the aviation and healthcare industries.

References

Books and Journals

• Gordon, M., Fell, C. W., Box, H., Farrell, M., & Stewart, A. (2017). Learning health ‘safety’within non-technical skills interprofessional simulation education: a qualitative study. Medical education online, 22(1), 1272838.
• Gunal, M. M. (2019). Simulation for Industry 4.0. Past, Present, and Future. Springer.
• Kanki, B. G., Anca, J., & Chidester, T. R. (Eds.). (2019). Crew resource management. Academic Press.
• Law, A. M. (2022). How to build valid and credible simulation models. In 2022 Winter Simulation Conference (WSC) (pp. 1283-1295). IEEE.
• Malcom, D. R., Pate, A. N., & Rowe, A. S. (2020). Applying safety lessons from aviation to pre-licensure health professions education: A narrative critical review. Currents in pharmacy teaching and learning, 12(8), 1028-1035.
• Meissner, R., Rahn, A., & Wicke, K. (2021). Developing prescriptive maintenance strategies in the aviation industry based on a discrete-event simulation framework for post-prognostics decision making. Reliability Engineering & System Safety, 214, 107812.
• Salvendy, G., & Karwowski, W. (Eds.). (2021). Handbook of human factors and ergonomics. John Wiley & sons
• Wang, L., Huang, R., Shi, W., & Zhang, C. (2021). Domino effect in marine accidents: Evidence from temporal association rules. Transport policy, 103, 236-244.
• Webster, C. S., Henderson, R., & Merry, A. F. (2020). Sustainable quality and safety improvement in healthcare: further lessons from the aviation industry. British journal of anaesthesia, 125(4), 425-429.
• Wilson, M. K., Strickland, L., Farrell, S., Visser, T. A., & Loft, S. (2020). Prospective memory performance in simulated air traffic control: robust to interruptions but impaired by retention interval. Human factors, 62(8), 1249-1264.

Online

• Theory of accident causation. 2023. [Online.] Available through: < https://globalehs.co.in/theory-of-accident-causation/>.