Human factors in general practice: what it means for practice, training, and CPD

A gradual shift in healthcare thinking started almost 15 years ago with the powerful testimony of British Airways pilot, Martin Bromiley, whose wife Elaine suffered hypoxic brain injury during routine Ear, Nose, and Throat (ENT) surgery. His subsequent highly successful campaign has raised awareness about the importance of human factors (HF) within health care. Clinical HF training is the training of cognitive and social skills needed to support technical training, in order to optimise safe and efficient patient care provision. It is about how you manage threats and errors in a given environment around patient care; about people and their environment. The General Medical Council (GMC) has now introduced HF competency as part of its generic ‘professional capability’,1 and it is likely that a medical practitioner will need to provide evidence of this during appraisal and revalidation. The GMC’s executive team has also undergone HF awareness training, and the organisation has made a commitment to deliver similar training to all its ‘fitness to practice’ medical assessors. As part of the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges, The Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP) signed a Concordat in 20132 to support the National Health Service (NHS) in promoting HF principles and practices in health care. The Concordat also sought to develop inclusion of this in the core training curriculum for all health professionals, and to support ongoing professional development in this area. The Royal Colleges of Surgery, Anaesthetists, and Obstetricians and Gynaecologists have all forged ahead in embedding HF …