Capturing Organisational Lessons from COVID-19
Our Safety, Skills and Improvement Research Collaborative recently teamed up with the Chartered Institute of Ergonomics and Human Factors (CIEHF) to develop and launch guidance for health and social care organisations on ‘Achieving sustainable change: capturing lessons from COVID-19 and beyond’.
The guidance can help people working in health and social care systems capture valuable practice and improvements made during their response to COVID-19.
The aim is to contribute to organisational change at a policy, strategic and operational level. If left too late, there is a real danger that positive change is not documented and will be lost as care systems emerge from the pandemic.
The leadership and management of the impact of COVID-19 on the health and social care systems required people to work at pace in response to a rapidly changing environment. This affected all levels through to the clinical frontline.
While all organisations have the capacity to adapt, learn quickly and demonstrate agility in dealing with complexity and chaos, they can be equally good at forgetting good practice!
As leaders change, systems evolve and technology and regulations advance, new operating procedures are adopted, and corporate memory of good practice can be lost. As a result, organisations spend time, money and energy reinventing the wheel.
The guide provides an explanation of how ‘systems thinking’ and organisational learning can contribute to sustainable change during a crisis situation, but also as part of normal everyday work. It outlines two key areas in achieving effective organisational learning: Mindset and Action. Related interactive templates are provided to help care teams capture this.
The guidance cannot catapult readers from novice to expert. However, it is hoped that it will inspire and challenge thinking.
Access a PDF copy of the NES-CIEHF guidance and the accompanying ‘Mindset’ and ‘Action’ templates
Prof Paul Bowie is NES Programme Director (Safety & Improvement) and the CIEHF Healthcare Special Interest Group Co-Lead (Patient Safety).
Email: paul.bowie@nhs.scot
Twitter: @pbnes @HFhealthcareUK
Website: Human Factors resources and online network
Dr Mark Sujan is the CIEHF Healthcare Special Interest Group Co-Lead (Artificial Intelligence)
Contact: paul.bowie@nes.scot.nhs.uk
October, 22 2020