To err is human. Throughout everyday life, human error is around every corner. Human error is defined as, “a mistake made by a person rather than being caused by a poorly designed process or the malfunctioning of a machine such as a computer.” (Encarta, 2009) To simplify this definition, people make mistakes.
Human error may become apparent in the form of human behavior or conduct that can be categorized as undesirable, unacceptable, careless, inattentive, forgetful, reckless, harmful, a miscommunication, human performance that is extreme in variability or beyond the limits of that expected, or an inappropriate form of risk taking behavior. An error may be harmless, it may be detectable and correctable, or it may serve to predict future problems (Peters, 2006).
Many references to human error are associated with high-profile catastrophes. The publics concern over these high-profile catastrophes puts human error in the spotlight. Some examples of human error catastrophes include: the Tenerife runway collision in 1977, Three Mile Island in 1979, the Bhopal methyl isocyanate tragedy in 1984, the Challenger and Chernobyl disasters of 1986, and the Piper Alpha oil platform explosion in 1988. While these catastrophes put human error concerns in the spotlight, the human error impact on manufacturing operations can be just as detrimental.
All of the catastrophes that were described above happened on a night shift period of shift work. Shift work involves the alternation of teams of worker each working a certain “shift”, and who usually perform the same work duties so that operations can be continued for longer than allowed by any single worker. Shift work schedules necessarily require some workers to work for periods of ti...
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...ng questionnaires to the convenience sample was the basis of the study. This data was collected for a three-week period. The questionnaires were evaluated and descriptive statistics via means and standard deviations were used to describe the effect on work performance.
This study shows that all age groups are subject to exposure to physiological and psychological hazards brought about by night shift as indicated in their subjective response. It also shows that shift work is related to workplace fatigue and accident injury rates (Hayajneh, 2008).
Throughout literature review it seems that most research and studies support the fact that accident rates and shift work are related. The studies that were examined as part of this literature review compare and contrast various sides of business functions with similar results in accident rates and shift work data.
Meshkati, Najmedin. "Human Factors in Large-Scale Technological Systems' Accidents: Three Mile Island, Bhopal, Chernobyl." Industrial Crisis Quarterly 5 (1991): 131-54. Personal World Wide Web Pages. Web. 19 Mar. 2011. .
Wickens, Lee, Liu and Gordon-Becker (2014) defined human error as the “inappropriate human behavior that lowers levels of system effectiveness or safety”. Human error consists of mistake, which is the intended action that turned out to be inappropriate; slip, which is the unintended incorrect act; and lapse, the omission of nonintentional errors (Wickens, Lee, Liu & Gordon-Becker, 2014). There are various instances of human error demonstrated in the case description including, the nurse entering the MRI room with the oxygen tank (mistake), failure to check the level of oxygen in the tank (lapse) and the oxygen tank accidentally flying over to Michael’s head
According to “A Human Error Approach to Aviation Accident Analysis…”, both authors stated that HFACS was developed based off from the Swiss Cheese model to provide a tool to assist in the investigation process to identify the probable human cause (Wiegmann and Shappell, 2003). Moreover, the HFACS is broken down into four categories to identify the failure occur. In other words, leading up to adverse events the HFACS will identify the type error occur.
There are a few types of medical errors discussed in Patient Safety Principles & Practice. One of them is an error of execution. An error of execution is when a correct action does not proceed as intended. It is a failure of a planned action to be completed as first intended. It occurs unintentionally during an automatic performance of patient care. This error is almost always observable at the patient and caregiver interface.
In healthcare systems, there is a concept of fair and just culture. That concept is important to manage the risk. In any organization, errors can happen. But, the best first tool to understand the error is to report it when it happens. Reporting error
With this number skyrocketing due to increasing labor demand in factories the health and safety risks escalate as well, meaning, “shift work is regarded as a significant occupational stressor which can have marked negative effects on both health and well-being” (Natvik et al. 719). Many diseases are associated with shift work including, obesity, metabolic syndrome, hypertension, diabetes, cancer, and sleep disorders (Marqueze et al. 229; Peplonska 693). Similarly, female night shift workers are at an increased risk for breast cancer and heart disease (Wang et al. 462). Even working as little as three night shifts per month for several years can cause increased chances for disease and health problems (Smith 112). One’s health cannot be simply replaced. This means companies should take these conditions into
Kohn, L. et al. 2000. To err is human: building a safer health system. Washington D.C. National Academies Press.
When an error occurs, the first step usually taken is to identify the individual that is responsible for the mistake. Frontline providers in health care, like nurses and doctors, are usually held accountable when a mistake occurs that affects patient safety and care. While this is the easiest step, it is not the most effective. "When human error is viewed as a cause rather than a consequence, it serves as a cloak for our ignorance. By serving as an end point rather than a starting point, it retards further understanding [1]." Factors outlined in Henriksen 's hierarchy, e.g. individual characteristics, the nature of the work, human-system interfaces, work environment, and management, need to be taken into account to identify the source of the
When mistakes are made no one takes care of them. Management tends to say they’ll take care of it, then never does. Management has a “lack of quality attitude”.
Shift Work: The introduction of shift work mainly depends on safety and productivity of the workers being maintained. However, evidence suggests that safety and productivity of workers may decline at night shifts with more hours on duty between breaks. The shift work system can be improved by introducing more rest breaks (Folkard & Tucker 2003).
Kohn, L., Corrigan, J., & Donaldson, M. (1999). To err is human: building a safer health system. Committee on Quality of Health Care in America Institute of Medicine National Academy Press Washington, D.C.
The article tittle “To Err Is Human: Building a Safer Health System” talks about how medical errors cost human lives, results in high cost and most importantly interferes with the nurse-patient relationship of building rapport. The patient loses trust in the nurse. Furthermore, the article lays the types of errors which occur in the medical field which are diagnostic errors, treatment errors, preventive errors, and other errors. Informatics has helped address some of the errors above mentioned
United States of America. Department of Transportation. FAA. Human Error and Commercial Aviation Accidents: A Comprehensive, Fine-Grained Analysis Using HFACS. FAA, July 2006. Web. 22 Mar. 2014. .
Everyone, at some point in their lives, has made a mistake. Sometimes we get lucky and only falter a little, making it through the problem relatively intact. Other times, we mess up a lot and have to fix what was damaged over a long period of time. However, the same is true for most, if not all cases—those who make the mistake learn from it. Often times, our failures teach us valuable lessons that we only gain because of the experience we gain after messing up.
It is very important to understand sleep to then understand the effects of shift work and to understand how to increase safety. There is very little knowledge about why we need a normal sleep cycle that include sleeping at night, but even less is known about the sleep cycles of those who try to sleep during the day and go to work during the long night. All the studies are not clear about what is the correct amount of sleep is actually required for a healthy lifestyle. As you look there the research there are result that show long natural sleepers and short sleepers have increase in mortality stats.