Human factors – recognising and minimising errors in our day to day practice

A significant cause of mistakes in healthcare and which are potentially harmful or fatal to patients can result from both individual clinicians and their employing organisations. The understanding and recognition of the role of human error within the healthcare setting is improving, but we still have much to learn when compared with other high-risk organisations such as aviation where such errors can be devastating at a much larger scale. The importance of both organisational issues and human factor issues at a more personal level including tiredness, the effect of emotions and the role of situational awareness, needs to be understood by all those involved in healthcare. Potential mistakes can be reduced with simple measures which need to be recognised by, emphasised and embedded in both teams and individuals. In this review, we address the need for greater awareness of human factors, assessing the path to error and how this can be reduced to minimum levels in clinical practice.