Journal article
Role of Human Factors Engineering in Infection Prevention: Gaps and Opportunities
Current treatment options in infectious disease, Vol.9(2), pp.230-249
2017
DOI: 10.1007/s40506-017-0123-y
PMCID: PMC7100866
PMID: 32226329
Abstract
Human factors engineering (HFE), with its focus on studying how humans interact with systems, including their physical and organizational environment, the tools and technologies they use, and the tasks they perform, provides principles, tools, and techniques for systematically identifying important factors, for analyzing and evaluating how these factors interact to increase or decrease the risk of Healthcare-associated infections (HAI), and for identifying and implementing effective preventive measures. We reviewed the literature on HFE and infection prevention and control and identified major themes to document how researchers and infection prevention staff have used HFE methods to prevent HAIs and to identify gaps in our knowledge about the role of HFE in HAI prevention and control. Our literature review found that most studies in the healthcare domain explicitly applying (HFE) principles and methods addressed patient safety issues not infection prevention and control issues. In addition, most investigators who applied human factors principles and methods to infection prevention issues assessed only one human factors element such as training, technology evaluations, or physical environment design. The most significant gap pertains to the limited use and application of formal HFE tools and methods. Every infection prevention study need not assess all components in a system, but investigators must assess the interaction of critical system components if they want to address latent and deep-rooted human factors problems.
Details
- Title: Subtitle
- Role of Human Factors Engineering in Infection Prevention: Gaps and Opportunities
- Creators
- Priyadarshini R Pennathur - University of IowaLoreen A Herwaldt - University of Iowa
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Publication Details
- Current treatment options in infectious disease, Vol.9(2), pp.230-249
- DOI
- 10.1007/s40506-017-0123-y
- PMID
- 32226329
- PMCID
- PMC7100866
- ISSN
- 1523-3820
- eISSN
- 1534-6250
- Grant note
- DOI: 10.13039/100000092, name: U.S. National Library of Medicine, award: 5R00 LM0111384-03; DOI: 10.13039/100000030, name: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, award: CK000448-02
- Language
- English
- Date published
- 2017
- Academic Unit
- Infectious Diseases; Epidemiology; Industrial and Systems Engineering; Internal Medicine
- Record Identifier
- 9984187041902771
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