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The essence of patient centred-care

Yusuf Yousuf is a healthcare support worker in Older Person's Services, a role he transitioned to after more than 10 years as a hospital porter.

Yusuf shares his very personal and emotional stories and experiences, finding inspiration in the NHS if you know where to look.

Here's my conversation with Yusuf Yousuf, in episode 02 of Atrainability Radio.

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Follow Yusuf on Twitter at @yusuf_yousuf

Be sure to subscribe to never miss an episode. Click the 'Subscribe to podcast' button on the podcast player above or subscribe via your preferred podcast player.


Trevor Dale and his team at Atrainability work extensively with NHS Trusts and healthcare professionals to train thousands of staff to create safe and effective teams.

In this podcast series, Trevor interviews a wide range of everyday NHS staff and patients, as well as his colleagues. Each conversation shares a unique story, spreading their learning far and wide.

Many of Trevor's guests in Season One of Atrainability Radio spoke at TEDxNHS 2019, where Atrainability were a sponsor. This is the first time these insightful conversations have been shared for the public to hear.

Coming up in the first season of Atrainability Radio:

Charlie Webster, is a Sports presenter and campaigner

Sarah Hillman is a clinician and academic researcher

Rachel Pilling is a consultant ophthalmologist and co-founder of 15s30m

Alexandra Adams is a 4th year medical student and the first deafblind person in the UK to be trained towards becoming a doctor

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35 Hits

The years I have known I was dying, have been the best years of my life

I'm delighted to share the first episode of our new podcast series, Atrainability Radio.

Lucy Watts is a 26-year-old prominent disability and health advocate, activist and consultant.

She's a committed individual who dedicates her time to making a difference for others.

As a disabled young woman, Lucy has to overcome a wide variety of barriers, not least the low expectations of disabled people by others and the lack of accessibility, as well as living with a complex, life-limiting illness, causing complex medical needs.

In this episode of Atrainability Radio, we get to know Lucy the person not just Lucy the patient.

Here's my conversation with Lucy Watts, in episode 01 of Atrainability Radio.

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More information about Lucy is on her website -

Follow Lucy on Twitter: @LucyAlexandria






Coming up in the first season of Atrainability Radio:

Yusuf Yousuf is a healthcare support worker in Older Person's Services

Charlie Webster, is a Sports presenter and campaigner

Sarah Hillman is a clinician and academic researcher

Rachel Pilling is a consultant ophthalmologist and co-founder of 15s30m


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530 Hits

Honesty is the best policy?

Trending today in the news is the story of a transplant gone wrong.

The Oxford University NHS Foundation Trust agreed £215,000 of damage for one of the resulting cases, where a 36-year-old patient died of an aneurysm caused directly by infection from a donated liver.

Two other patients who received transplanted organs from the same donor also became ill.

The story relates to an incident in 2015, where the surgeon harvested several organs, but nicked the stomach during the retrieval process, spilling contents over the other organs, resulting in infection.

As much as we don't like to speculate, we have to question what was happening in the mind of the clinician who must have been aware they had perforated the stomach.

There is serious learning from this incident, for all involved. We must now ask how the experience can be best disseminated, in an effort for this to never happen again.

What I would hope to see from the surgeon involved is humility. One assumes they would be embarrassed and, in the spur of the moment, elected not to report the incident. Which of us hasn't made a comment or decision in a single moment, we haven't subsequently regretted?

One would hope that a professional, in whatever field, would be able to swallow their pride, overcome their embarrassment, and do the right thing, for the right reasons; the essence of professionalism.

We can't afford everyone to go through learning by trial and error. People often throw out the line, "lessons should be learned", but let's consider first what those lessons should be.

There's an opportunity for someone who has been through this experience to share their learning with colleagues, turning a severe negative into a positive.

I know from my time as a training captain in aviation that, to make a mistake as an expert, we must share that experience with others. We are held to a higher standard.

Where mistakes happen as a professional, you must swallow your pride. You must try to find a positive out of what is a devastating incident.

I can understand why the patients and their families would seek to apportion blame in an incident like this. But I would hope that the event was unintentional, and failure to admit their mistake (and be honest) at the time, a failure they have subsequently lived to regret.

What would striking off a clinician achieve? As long as they accepted their role in the mistake, that is. Assuming this is the case, they possibly become the best person to teach others.

If they demonstrate reflective learning and the appropriate attitude, and of course the duty of candour, with support from colleagues and management share what they have been through, hopefully that could produce some benefit for others in a tragic situation.

We do, however, meet people who won't accept their part in such incidents. These people are a real worry. When the attitude is, "well, it's just one of those things!", that approach isn't good enough.

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598 Hits

Ageing dogs – new tricks?

Listening to the footballer Michael Owen on breakfast TV recently was fascinating.

He's always been highly competitive not least with himself. He spoke of his struggles to deal with the psychology of getting older and not being the man he once was.

As a footballer, this was due to his body no longer being able to do what it could and consequent injuries. He had to admit he couldn't outsprint the younger guys. His stamina was not what it was, and his joints and muscles were letting him down.

He told of the reaction from one of his famous senior colleagues accusing him of being idle, overpaid and lazy. The guy used to be a friend but when the going got tough…perhaps not so much a friend.

How do we deal with the passing of years? Can we accept our ageing?

A few years ago, the realisation that my once perfect vision was deteriorating hit me hard. I hid the fact for a while because I thought it would stop my flying career. I needed glasses! The point I was having double vision when tired was a requirement for a prism and not that unusual! Then along came the heart condition – turned out to be a wiring problem solved by a pacemaker! Even retained my private pilots' licence through all this.

But underpinning it was a fundamental undermining of my self-confidence. A denial that I was mortal. You see, I'd barely been ill in my charmed life. Case of flu, bitten by an African tick one time in the Kruger Park in South Africa (moral – don't walk through long grass with shorts on!), chickenpox as a kid, but nothing serious.

You see, both my parents died comparatively young by today's standards. Father at 66 from a heart attack having had a stroke a couple of years before. Mother the next year from a recurrence of cancer aged but 61. I'm well beyond those years already. Suddenly I didn't feel like superman.

I've just been to the fabulous English Lake District again. Managed plenty of good walking and climbing and I'm reasonably fit for my age. But probably time to admit I won't scale Scafell Pike again. I could do it I'm sure, but don't kid myself. Coming to terms with that can be a struggle for some of us to accept. Michael Owen has had to face it at a much younger age – he isn't even 40 yet!

Generally, as we age, we gain more experience and knowledge and, to some extent, skills improve. However, there comes the point when our dexterity begins to wane. Also, perhaps some of those riskier things we used to enjoy are replaced by a more considered approach. I have become a slower (fractionally), more considerate driver, albeit still way above average of course!

With passing years, sometimes the air of authority grows, although of course, we are highly approachable. But in colleagues' minds, there may be a tendency to trust, possibly too much? "Don't worry about Trev, he's been doing this for years, he knows what he's doing …"!

Life is competitive. We need that balance of confidence without arrogance that I've mentioned before. "I'm not difficult to approach, I'm just damn good at my job, the best in fact."

Where is this going? Well, it's made me wonder about some of the problematic behaviours I see and hear about – in healthcare. Three times recently, I've been asked to come and help organisations where they are experiencing uncivil behaviour. In particular, in each case, with tutors of junior doctors.

Just because we experienced abuse when we were young ourselves does, in no way, excuse us doing the same. Although that is exactly what I heard from a foreign female doctor tutor last week.

I will return to this theme in a future blog. But in the short term, perhaps look in the mirror.

How do senior medics cope with getting older? What's the famous old saying? Physician heal thyself!

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937 Hits

Safety 2 to the core

Often we get commissioned to train front-line teams because an error has been made.

After all, they were probably the ones involved at the 'sharp end'. How, though do the managers behave? In fact, what defines effective management culture?

To become even more specific, what is the relationship between managers and staff at all levels?

I've written before about organisation culture and who sets it. The Board will think they do, but in reality, it is the middle and senior management, and even team leaders, who deliver the actual version.

Erik Hollnagel refers to Safety 1 and Safety 2.

Safety 1, as I'm sure you're aware, is essentially backwards-looking. In effect, waiting for the next problem and dealing with the fallout.

Safety 2 is forward-looking, as in proactively looking for future issues and trying to head them off.

To achieve this, you need an empathic approach, one that seeks to understand, not what someone has done, so much as why it seemed like the correct action when hindsight might have proved it in error.

I argue that to behave in this manner, managers up to the top need to comprehend what these Human Factors are; how they affect good people trying to do a complex job under frequently very challenging conditions.

Any organisation I work with, I ask the staff if they know or have met their Chief Executive and Board. Guess what? In struggling organisations, the answer is normally along the lines of "well I've seen their picture" or "I've been at a meeting where we've been lectured at and told off".

An interesting example was a little while ago where I asked a roomful of senior leaders, in front of their Chief Exec, whether they worked in a learning or blame culture. Quick as a flash, the CEO said, "This is not a blame culture!"

However, one of the clinical leads was waving their hand and when prompted said, "This is absolutely a blame culture, and I and all my colleagues are practising defensive medicine because we don't feel safe!"

So let's look forward in Safety 2 fashion. What does it take?

One of our long term clients that have long since implemented a turnaround in culture, and saved thousands of pounds in the process, started by getting us along to talk to the Board. We were given just 30 minutes to enlighten them! Oh boy.

The words Human Factors came up at every subsequent Board meeting, and suddenly they fell in that they didn't know enough.

We were invited back to give them a short training course on what affects peoples' abilities to work safely and effectively. Things like:

  • Allow them to be human – give them adequate breaks and resources.
  • Examine processes – do they work? Or do you get workarounds because they are not fit for purpose?
  • Are equipment and training given so that it is easier to get it right than get it wrong?
  • Have they and their managers had some form of training in understanding these issues and the effect on performance?
  • Are they treated with empathy and understanding or needless, useless blame?

Sadly many of our clients come to us with the problems.

Often the CQC have told them off because of failings in performance or harm.

This is not difficult. It is no big secret that the way to get high performance is to look after and respect your workforce. Again a part of Hollnagel's Safety 2.

I ask people do they feel like a resource or a liability, a risk?

None of us is immune from error. We don't do it on purpose.

To paraphrase Sidney Dekker from his book 'Just Culture', don't resort to blame but try to understand why somebody thought the action they took was the correct thing to do. Ask why it made sense to them at the time.

Do this, and you will see…

  • a reduction in staff absence through sickness
  • better staff retention
  • more people applying for jobs
  • fewer incidents
  • reduced spend on compensation

You know it makes sense!

Contact us for a chat about how we can help move your organisation to Safety 2.

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2583 Hits

Never events and the 10,000ft rule

Widely reported in the news recently was the story of a gentleman who went into the hospital for a routine bladder procedure and left having received a circumcision.

70-year-old Terry Brazier was awarded £20,000 in compensation following the "never event" at Leicester Royal Infirmary last summer. The hospital said it was "deeply and genuinely sorry".

The news story shows that never events continue to happen. In my experience, there are as many of these incidents occurring today as there were before the focus on never events started within the healthcare sector.

Receiving a circumcision instead of a Botox injection into your bladder is, I suppose, unfortunate and distressing. But think of what else could have happened.

We know of one case where a young patient was supposed to have scar tissue removal on his scrotum but received a vasectomy instead. This mistake was truly devastating for the young man, and impossible to reverse in this instance. The surgical team also suffered immense distress when they realized and that is a subject for another day.

It makes you wonder how these never events come about. Surgeons don't purposely set out to operate on the wrong side or to carry out the incorrect procedure. But these never events are not diminishing statistically, despite apparent safeguards put in place to protect against them. And I find that extremely alarming.

One of the things we find, when asked to go into a hospital and try to help prevent further incidents and rebuild morale, in the wake of an avoidance harm incident, is that interruptions and distractions often feature.

Last year, I was training and coaching in a surgical unit, when I was called into the neighbouring theatre which had just experienced their own never event. It was a wrong side nerve block, thankfully resulting in no devastating harm, but certainly with the potential to cause real damage to the patient. Distraction was a factor there. The anaesthetist and assistant had been chatting about their respective weekend social life. That was just after they had completed the mandatory 'Stop before you Block' check.

A good friend of mine, a senior Emergency Department Consultant told me the biggest safety threat of all is managing your environment, both externally (interruptions) and internally (self distractions). Just not thinking or concentrating.

In the aviation profession, we follow the 10,000ft rule. When flying commercial airliners, anytime you're operating below 10,000ft above the ground, you enter a social lockdown mode. There's no discussing your next round of golf, or your plans for the weekend. We call it the 'sterile flight-deck'. It equates roughly to the first and last 10 minutes of the average commercial flight but as you descend below 10,000 feet altitude is a mandatory safety check so we combine the two at that convenient moment.

There are times and places for social chit-chat. There are times and places for focusing on the task at hand.

When pilots aren't concentrating on flying the plane, that's when things tend to go wrong. It could be something relatively harmless like a bit of speeding (!), or it could be more severe like flying too close to another aircraft, or a hill, or radio mast.

It's positive to see some hospitals now introducing their own 10,000ft rule. The team are advised of the threats to safety at the briefing stage and reminded to make the safety call. Someone in the team says "10,000ft", and everyone goes silent. There are no interruptions, no distractions, focus. They could also be briefed to announce any concerns that they might notice and ensure a response – think of the 'Gorilla' video! Attention mechanism etc.

When you reach the crucial part of the procedure, the part where things have the potential to go wrong, that's when the 10,000ft rule is activated. You don't allow anyone else to enter the room and phones are switched to silent.

In the case of the gentleman receiving the circumcision, the compensation payout and negative PR can help focus attention on the causes and prevent them from happening again. A lot depends on how embarrassing the never event is for the hospital in question.

There are never any winners when there is avoidable harm. But I'm still not sure that everyone in healthcare takes never events as seriously as they should.

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929 Hits

Complacency at play in healthcare

How many of us consider ourselves to be better than average drivers? 78% of people on the roads think they are better than average. If you've got a mathematical bent, work that one out!

But what's the biggest killer on the roads? Probably complacency.

There's a great quote by Captain E J Smith, the captain of RMS Titanic. "I never saw a wreck and never have been wrecked nor was I in any predicament that threatened to end in disaster of any sort." Now does that ring any bells?

The number of times we meet people - and I've been doing this job for 30 years - and they tell me they don't need a checklist, or they don't need to change their approach. That's complacency at work.

It's almost like famous last words. We witness this a lot, where people kick back and say, "Why do I need a checklist? Why do I need to do briefings?" But when you look back at the root cause analysis of incidents, did everyone involved know what was going on?

That leads us to consider the whole idea about naturalistic decision making and pattern matching, with most decisions made during the day taking place without really thinking. We make decisions about what to wear or what to eat, without much thought at all. The same goes for walking, breathing, eating; doing the vast majority of things everyday. OK I accept the more stylish of you do think about what you're going to wear, but look around you. Plenty don't!

There's a bit of a danger in healthcare, where people have been told they should be so good at their job, that they can do it without thinking. In that respect, human factors concepts become heresy. Because what we're suggesting is that, you should always engage your brain and not make assumptions.

May I suggest that the high-performing professional is always thinking, "Is there something here which tells me I could be wrong?" Is there a contrary indication?

In over words, we need to look to overcome confirmation bias; the belief that, once we've made a subconscious decision, we're right. Humans tend to disregard anything that doesn't fit that initial pattern matching, our naturalistic decision making. It goes a long way to explain why complacency is such a factor because we're all sure that we're right.

I recently experienced complacency at work in an operating theatre. There was a change in the order of the list, with a patient elevated to the front of the queue because they were in greater need of surgery.

But instead of rubbing out the names on the whiteboard, the theatre team just reversed the order of the numbers listed alongside the names. It was worse than that, in fact; rather than erasing and rewriting the numbers, they added the revised order of numbers in a different colour.

As I watched this take place, I thought, "Why wouldn't you just rub out the numbers so there is no chance the order can be confused?"

Next time you come across someone who seems unduly pedantic and almost obsessive on checking everything. I almost guarantee that they'll be someone who found out the hard way and they really don't want to go there again.

Where does complacency play a role in your professional life, and what steps can you take to stamp it out?

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1664 Hits

Checklists – the luck barrier

Have you ever ticked a box on a checklist, without carrying out the check?

Worryingly, this is part of the culture in some of the hospitals we visit, where we often hear about people ticking boxes on checklists, despite the item patently not being checked.

We know the item wasn't checked, because there's been a subsequent fault, like a retained swab despite the checklist claiming all of the instruments were counted at the end of the procedure.

The boxes are all ticked, yet there's been an error. So, how the heck can that happen?

To counter this issue, I will show medical professionals examples of the checklists we use in aviation, the majority of which have no tick boxes. 

As pilots, we don't tick boxes. Instead, we make it a matter of personal and professional discipline that you do the check.

If you are interrupted during the check, you start it again. In other words, it's not about ticking the box.

Aviation also has standardised responses that are pertinent to the item. Such as...

"Flaps?" response - "checked and set 20, green light on"

"Landing Gear?" response – "down and three green lights"

Note none of the responses are "yup" or "OK".

So maybe "antibiotics?" response - "administered (and state which one)"

"Surgical site marking?" response – "seen and cross-checked with consent and operating list"

There's an important question here for managers; how do you audit the correction completion of a checklist? 

Do you just go and count the ticks and boxes? Are they aware they're being audited? Do your people get in trouble if a box isn't ticked?

I think this is about understanding the purpose of checklists; what they are for and for what they are not.

Are they a 'read and do checklist, for example, check the patient's name and date of birth, and then actually do it? Or are they a 'challenge, response' checklist? "Yep, I've already checked the patient's name and consent, or date of birth."

It's about understanding the purpose of the checklist, how to use them correctly, and how not to use them.

There's a scene in the movie Sully, where the co-pilot works through an emergency checklist, following a catastrophic bird strike on both engines. The co-pilot works through this checklist with Captain Sullenberger, despite familiarity with the various steps to take.

Despite what would have been memory items, they take out the checklist, and they work through it together. When you're in a hurry, with a life-threatening incident taking place, you use a list to ensure your memory hasn't let you down.

Earlier this year, I watched a senior nurse in theatre proudly complete the timeout check from memory. We had already spoken about the check and how it wasn't about the ability to recall the items from memory. Despite that conversation, he immediately slipped back into his usual way of doing it.

What was particularly interesting was, of course, he forgot something on the checklist. A consultant surgeon picked him on the missing checklist item.

This experience made the point beautifully that our memories are fallible. The use of checklists is not about how clever you are.

Being professional is about doing something the right way, every time, such that it's the way you do it when you need it the most. That one time when your luck runs out.

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4390 Hits

Beware asking leading questions

I had a pacemaker fitted about four years ago.


She proceeded to tell me my date of birth too, and what I was scheduled to have done that day.

After confirming "yes" to all of her questions, I asked her to start again and ask me my name instead of telling me my name, as she was supposed to. She responded with "yes I know I'm supposed to but …" Clearly, she didn't understand how dangerous that can be. How many times has the wrong answer been given because often patients don't like to cause upset' or they're merely stressed or ill and didn't hear correctly, or just didn't want to argue? The doctor knows best?

Many of you have had this particular issue where you've ended up with the wrong patient or made incorrect assumptions.

There's a funny story of a gynaecologist running a clinic in a part health care, part social care environment. She entered the waiting room and said, "Mrs Patel," and this woman said, "Yes." And she said, "Please would you come in and would you get undressed? I'm going to examine you."

The gynaecologist gave her patient a hysteroscopy and said, "Everything's fine. You'll be pleased to know no problem at all." And the lady said, "But I came here for housing benefit?"

And of course, it's the wrong, Mrs Patel. By the way three days later, a lawyers' letter arrived – invasive procedure without consent!

Over the years, I've met a lot of people in health care and social care who have experienced the same issue.

A consultant doctor recently told me he ended up telling a patient he had terminal liver cancer. It was only when he said to him, "Would you like to look at your scans with me?" that the patient told him he hadn't had any scans, and the doctor realised he had delivered such bad news to the wrong person.

Healthcare professionals are often embarrassed to ask their patients, "Could you tell me your name?".

I observed an ODP, a few years back, saying to a patient, "It is Mrs Jones, isn't it? Your date of birth is blah. And you're here to have your left knee operated on aren't you?"

Which is fine, but his colleague I went with separately said, "Now I know you're going to hear this 20 times today, Mrs Smith, but this is just for your safety, could you please tell me your name and your date of birth and what you think you're here for?" Which of these approaches do you believe is safer?

I observed another interesting one, only last week, where there was a chap who was very ill, with sepsis amongst other things and a kidney stone and multiple comorbidities. He was under heavy sedation at the time, and the ODP asked him, "Why are you here?" Of course, he didn't know and said as much in reply.

One of the ODPs asked the question in a much more effective way; "Do you know what's wrong with you?", to which the patient explained he had been told he had a kidney stone.

There's another case we know recently where a junior doctor went and consented a patient, said, "It's your right leg, isn't it?" Yes, here's an arrow on your leg. They got the consultant to countersign the consent.

The patient had dementia and didn't know if it was Christmas or Easter, let alone which leg it was. And of course, as luck would have it, it was the wrong leg.

Asking leading questions is part of human nature. It's a quick and easy approach, rather than what we prefer to see during a team briefing or safety huddle, which is "Does anyone have any concerns?"

So instead the lead says, "You're happy, aren't you?" It's closing the conversation down. People got to put a real effort in to ask a question or say they're not happy.

Whereas if you say to someone, "Do you have any concerns?", it opens up the conversation to the rest of the team.

Bearing in mind that some people are more reticent, and need to think things over and weigh up whether they're essential or not in their minds, then it's allowing them to speak up, especially if there's any level of hierarchy involved.

This issue of leading questions ties in with different nationalities and cultures experiencing different attitudes to people in authority, something identified by Hofstede's work on power-distance and nationality.

There was a Swedish lady on a course only last week, and she found all this stuff about deference to people in authority to be quite funny. And I said to her, "Do you know that the Swedes have the lowest inbuilt attitude to hierarchy of all the nationalities in the world?"

Her attitude in an open class discussion was precisely that as a Swede, and the Swedes do have a very flat hierarchy. And if anything, I think it can produce the reverse result, where they have difficulty showing appropriate respect to people in authority.

The consequences of asking leading questions can be pretty alarming, so please don't do it! Always ask open questions.
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4539 Hits

Magic words



If air traffic control instructs the pilot to turn left, or climb, or descend, and for any reason, the pilot can't do it (for a technical or weather-related reason, for example), then the pilot will say "unable".

If you've watched the movie 'Sully' the miracle on the Hudson, you might remember Captain Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger using the magic word "unable" when requested to turn to Teterboro airport. He uses the magic word, and nobody questions it.

Here at Atrainability, we've been introducing this Magic or Safeword concept to healthcare for some time. Critical teams could usefully have a magic word in place so that they can communicate effectively during procedures.

Of course, there needs to be a degree of sensitivity in choosing this magic word. It might upset a conscious patient to hear "Gorilla on the loose" or similar.

Some teams use the phrase "stop the line." This approach comes from the Toyota production line, where any member of staff is empowered to halt production if they see someone unsafe, inefficient, or ineffective taking place.

Some are using "10,000 feet", a reference to the other much-used aviation phrase that signifies no distraction or interruption for the time being. It comes from standard practice when commercial planes are near the ground – below 10,000 feet altitude. That's roughly the first and last 10 minutes of a typical flight.

We have the evidence from countless 'black boxes' that you're more likely to have an incident when not focused on the job in hand. In aviation, either enjoying the view "ooh look there's my house!" or discussing something inconsequential.

But "stop the line" or "10,000 feet" can be quite cumbersome and perhaps a little imported. It's preferable, I believe, for teams to devise their magic word.

There's a surgeon I know in one NHS hospital, as part of his daily team briefing, he asks what magic word they will use that day. That's a great approach to get teams to engage with magic word principle, but of course, if members of the group switch over during the day, it can be potentially problematic if someone new doesn't know the magic word of the day.

Some hospitals have a magic word at an organisational level. But that could feel like it's being imposed upon them. There's so much in healthcare where people need their independence, for their motivation and empowerment.

What matters is that every member of the team should feel able to stop what is taking place if they think anything is unsafe, or something needs to be clarified. They might say "unable" or "stop".

My wife and I have a magic phrase in case of emergency.

During a recent holiday, she said to me, "Trevor, I need you to help me!" She had caught her finger in a sunbed, causing a nasty injury and lots of blood when it was released. By saying, "need!", there was no doubt she need help Now. No confusion, no uncertainty.

Clarity is so important.

When you're piloting a plane and taking off or landing, your focus is quite reasonably ahead of you, so you're not making eye contact with your colleagues on the flight deck. Naturally, that means you can't detect non-verbal language like shifting in your seat with concern, as we would in ordinary life.

The same could apply if masked and gowned in a complicated or stressful clinical procedure.

When you use a Magic or Safeword, it's essential its use doesn't result in resentment from colleagues. We've got some way to go within the healthcare profession to understand this. Some cultures find it harder than others to accept the use of a magic word without associating it with disrespect or failure to follow a hierarchical structure.

So, to summarise, have you ever experienced a situation where someone either didn't speak up and challenge or wasn't heard or was misunderstood. With hindsight would a Magic or Safeword possibly have helped? I know some of you have got this already. Please spread the word!

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1231 Hits

Sharing best practice


The training involved very senior management, and I took the opportunity to mention the recurring incident which involves two syringes of colourless medicines being mixed up on the scrub tray.

I asked the senior management in the room, "So how do you do it here? Do you colour code the syringes, barcode them, or add labels?"

A senior nurse in the room spoke up, explaining she put Steristrips on each syringe and writes onto these. But there's no standard hospital protocol, designed to prevent the potentially severe mix-up from happening.

Sitting in the corner was the senior manager responsible for all elective surgery in this hospital. She sat there with her mouth open, realising there was no guideline in place designed to avoid or trap an easily preventable mistake.

I had an email exchange with her the following morning, and she confirmed she had a team working on the problem straight away.

What if I hadn't delivered training at that hospital? What if she hadn't attended the course that day?

Sharing best practice and national standards are sadly sorely lacking in the medical profession.

We're aware of another hospital, where recently an anaesthetist told me she administered a child with Adrenaline, not Fentanyl. This is important because Fentanyl is an opioid, slowing the heart rate. Adrenaline speeds it up.

Following the medication mix-up, the team were questioning why the child had become tachycardic, thinking something must have been seriously wrong with him. Only on return to the anaesthetic prep-room was the mix-up noticed.

Probable cause? Working with a new ODP, who drew up the drugs in an unfamiliar way and cross-checking was secondary to social team building.

Sharing best practice is so important. It is a shame that there is rarely time for medical professionals to spend a little time down the road with their colleagues at other hospitals, learning from the way they do things.

You attend a conference, and someone will often share best practice. But they tend to talk about their own hot topic, their specialist research area. It becomes hit and miss whether you attend relevant sessions.

There are locations around the country, and indeed around the world, that have solved significant issues. But sadly all too often others don't know about it.

This reminds me of the famous Donald Rumsfeld statement, about the 'known knowns' and 'unknown unknowns'.

Working out your unknown unknowns by sharing best practice between different teams is a really valuable but arguably essential step.

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5272 Hits

Learning from near-misses

I was delivering some training recently at a hospital which was using the latest version of Datix, the instant reporting system. They have the newest release in place, which allows you to report no-harm, near-miss incidents; something the old system would not let you do. We checked the drop-down menus together and confirmed this capability was included.

During a quiet moment later that day with the senior management, I asked about their near miss reporting. They gave me a puzzled look, and asked what I meant by near miss?

When I explained what I meant, they told me they didn't do that. This prompted a conversation about how near misses are the luck element that results in not harming patients.

It became clear that the management at this hospital had not thought of near-miss reporting in this way before. They were bright people and very nice people, very well-intentioned, but it just hadn't occurred to them.

What it seems we often do at Atrainability is point out the obvious.

By getting members of critical teams to think about those danger areas they already know about, and they need to be proactively addressing, it helps them recognise the tip of the iceberg.

These are the dangers sitting right in front of us. But the real threat is submerged below the surface. When no harm is done, there are no visible means of damage caused.

Analysing near misses comes back to root cause analysis. There will probably be several underlying conditions at play.

For example, if you have a nurse who is going to be scrubbing with a surgeon, who has never carried out that procedure before, compared with a nurse who has. The nurse who has carried it out before is likely to know what the surgeon needs next before they even ask for it.

In that scenario, it's important to know before you get started whether your colleague knows what they are doing, or not, because in one case it's going to be a bit longer, and require a lot more communication.

From my background as a pilot, a mandatory reportable incident is anything which had the potential to cause harm. It's all about that word, potential.

Where potential to cause harm is identified in the medical profession, it's essential those near misses are analysed and understood, before changes are introduced to reduce that potential in the future.

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1156 Hits











But there's other stuff in play here.









No, it's not paranoia it's experience and good training.
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1195 Hits

Culture and climate










Everyone was left feeling hacked off. The effect was palpable.














It just shows what happens when you emphasise the obvious.



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1340 Hits

Hierarchy and behaviour issues




Could it be a lack of insight?


Alternatively, it could be a result of illness or stress.








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1256 Hits

Appreciative inquiry and accepting praise








At Atrainability we recommend three simple questions:

-Is there one thing that I or we do well?






















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1347 Hits

Near hits and the tip of the iceberg



There's plenty of understandable reasons for not reporting the near hits.




















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1294 Hits

Reacting to tragedy - the aviation experience
























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1314 Hits

What’s in a name?


So why is this behaviour not the norm in healthcare?














Power is granted, respect is earned.







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3508 Hits

The familiar tale of high staff turnover




The view from the top was: 







She has simply had enough. 






Trevor Dale, Human Factors Specialist

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2363 Hits