British journal of anaesthesia
-
Simulation is an accepted part of training, assessment, and research in aviation, nuclear power, and the military. Confidence in results in these industries is underpinned by relatively comprehensive and widely accepted standards. ⋯ The absence of standards undermines confidence in the results of any simulation-based endeavour and increases the risk of negative learning. We propose a practical framework for setting standards for simulators for anaesthesia.
-
Anaesthetists in the Defence Medical Services spend most of their clinical time in the National Health Service and deploy on military operations every 6-18 months. The deployed operational environment has a number of key differences particularly as there is more severe trauma than an average UK hospital and injury patterns are mainly due to blast or ballistics. Equipment may also be unfamiliar and there is an expectation to be conversant with specific standard operating procedures. ⋯ This includes current work in the field hospital in Afghanistan and also preparing to work for the Royal Air Force and Royal Navy. We highlight the importance of human factors with reference to the type of case mix seen in the field hospital. We also detail the current pre-deployment training package, which employs multiple educational tools including high-fidelity simulation.
-
Aviation safety has evolved over more than a century and has achieved remarkable results. Applying some of the lessons learned may help make healthcare safer. ⋯ Although many of the ingredients for safe operation are frequently already present in our hospitals, and some individual clinical areas and departments achieve high levels of reliability and safety, I will emphasize my firm belief that we cannot expect improvements in human factors training and awareness to be fully effective in the healthcare setting without the parallel development of a simple and strong safety system across organizations. In the process, we may find that the safe hospital turns out somewhat differently to the safe airline.