New Human Factors Hub Online

The new NES Human Factors Hub came online at the beginning of July 2022.  As it evolves and more resources are added, the ambitious goal is for the Hub to become a ‘one-stop-shop’ for all things Human Factors for health and social care education and practice. 

What is Human Factors?

Human Factors (also known as Ergonomics) is a science and profession concerned with the understanding of interactions among humans and other elements of a system, and the profession that applies theory, principles, data, and methods to design in order to optimize human well-being and overall system performance (IEA, 2001).

In other words, it is about designing work, technology and physical and social environments to make things easy and safe to use.

A whole suite of resources and materials are already available to access or download (see Table 1 for examples).  These will be of strong interest to leaders, policymakers, educators, scientists and engineers, digital experts, improvement advisors, specialists in safety, risk, governance and procurement, as well as those working at the ‘sharp-end’ of health and social care practice.

Table 1. Examples of Human Factors resources for application by educators, practitioners and others.

For educators interested in embedding Human Factors concepts and tools within training curricula and programmes, please get in touch. The Human Factors Hub can be accessed here: https://learn.nes.nhs.scot/21394/human-factors

Prof Paul Bowie – Programme Director (Safety & Improvement)

Contact: paul.bowie@nhs.scot    Twitter: @pbnes

Paul Watson – Senior Project Officer