Human Factors in Healthcare Blog

In my last two postings, I provided some non-traditional advice about how to hire someone for a human factors engineering and design/safety job.  A reminder of the five jobs that contained attributes helpful for an HFE and Medicine specialist:

1. Bartender
2. Bean-packing plant safety manager
3. Lifeguard
4. Set designer
5. Wilderness survival expert

The #3 job, lifeguard, is easy for me to relate to;  I was a lifeguard at a quarry lake for 2.5 summers.  During my time there, two people drowned at this lake – both times I happened to be off.  Nevertheless, we “pulled” many kids and adults out of situations where they were drowning or near drowning (N=30-40 per summer).  It was an old, deep quarry that was very crowded and full of many people who could barely swim – but tried anyway.

What does this have to do with skills and knowledge to be a HFE and device/healthcare expert? 

It all starts with the training.  Nearly 30% of lifeguard training is learning how to use “judo” moves to escape the clutches of a frantic, grab-at-anything drowning person.  This frenzy is not nearly the same as designers and engineers whose prototype is “drowning”, but there are parallels.  We learned some of this at a how-to-be-a-consultant workshop I took at Usability Professional Association (UPA).  The “master” consultant went through several resistance strategies we would encounter from product designers who felt threatened – and how to “wrestle” our way out of their “clutches”.

Secondly, drowning or near-drowning does not look like what you see on TV.  Major human factors engineering design flaws are often not what you think (or just common sense).  There is very little splashing and waving.   Major HFE design flaws are often subtle or hide.  In both cases, you not only need to train yourself about these counterintuitive ways of monitoring the situation, you need to be able to teach others. 

Third, lifeguards very quickly learn that their job is a lot of being tested, being drilled, and regular practice.  Hands-on, lots of feedback, peer input, and building a thick skin.  Its not boot camp or military, but often close.  Applying HFE in the hectic healthcare or device development arena requires you have that thick skin.  You also need to develop it in your design, marketing, engineering, and management colleagues.  HFE is about high contact, hands-on, and lots and lots of testing.  Building thick skin requires repetition, tack yes, but repetition.

Next, we look at  the job of “set designer” (huh?!)