One Question
Liverpool has a history of providing care for women and babies that dates back to 1796. The city plans to continue this tradition with a new generation of professionals, trained to recognize the role that human factors play in healthcare.
How can human factors save mothers and babies?
The miracle of birth: the door neither opens nor closes and yet there is a new person in the room. This never ceases to amaze me and fill me with delight.
The miracle of birth is made easier when those working with mothers and babies know how important the social skills of communication and the cognitive skills of situational awareness are. These are highly relevant in the work of the maternity-care team, in which multitasking is needed; women are usually awake when giving birth, and the clinical circumstances may be complex and stressful.
As a maternity practice educator, I am responsible for ensuring that professional education programmes for the next generation of midwives meet the requirements of both the clinical and corporate-governance risk-management agendas. I am also involved in introducing what are called “human factors” to our training because understanding their role can be a matter of life or death.
In numerous reports on maternal and neonatal deaths, many cases involved an element of substandard care. Teamwork and interpersonal skills were cited as particular areas of concern, as were decision-making, leadership, giving and receiving feedback and fatigue. These are all human factors.
I have spent my life working in the United Kingdom’s NHS (National Health Service). This was born in the 1940s out of the ideal that good healthcare should be available to all, regardless of income. The NHS has been described as “the institution which more than any other unites our nation” and I hope this great human factor will continue to unite us.
The miracle of birth amazes me and fills me with delight