This explored how Community Pharmacy (CP) staff perceive & experience the roles of procedures within the workplace. 24 pharmacy staff (pharmacists & support staff) were interviewed. Results: 3 main themes emerged. 1) the influence of work demands, 2) the influence staff role has on how procedures are viewed & 3) the dissemination and enforcement of… Continue reading When procedures meet practice in community pharmacies: qualitative insights from pharmacists and pharmacy support staff

This study from David Oswald and colleagues provides a summary of the use and abuse of construction safety indicators by way of semi-structured interviews. First, prior research on lagging indicators was summarised: 1) leading indicators have a reverse relationship and act like lagging 2) measure unsafety more than safety 3) capture things already gone wrong… Continue reading The use and abuse of safety indicators in construction

This studied the level of agreement between leaders & their teams on the perception of leaders’ safety behaviours pre & post-leadership training, & the impact training had on changing leadership behaviours & followers’ safety self-efficacy; 48 leaders & 211 followers completed surveys. When leaders & followers agreed, leaders’ leadership behaviours & followers’ self-efficacy to give… Continue reading Leader-team perceptual distance affects outcomes of leadership training: Examining safety leadership and follower safety self-efficacy

This explored the factors involved in 247 cases of geotechnical accidents from OSHA records 1984-2013. For context, some research suggests that accidents are both more prevalent (12% higher than average) and more severe (47% higher than average) in the geotechnical engineering sector than in the construction industry as a whole. Results: The geotech phase of… Continue reading Work-related injuries and fatalities in the geotechnical site works

This studied how the stigma associated with having a workplace incident may impact self-reported safety behaviours and psychological health outcomes, while controlling for safety climate. 528 workers were surveyed. While authors hypothesised that safety stigma would be positively associated with safety compliance and participation (due to the social pressure of engaging in expected routines), the… Continue reading Stigma at work – The psychological costs and benefits of the pressure to work safely

This study explored the human factors findings from reviewing the causes of 9 surgical ‘never events’. Never events are a list of patient safety adverse events which are known to result in severe harm or death (e.g. wrong-site surgery). Results: Findings from the 9 never events were grouped into 6 categories of contributing factors. All… Continue reading Never Events: The Cultural and Systems Issues that cannot be Addressed by Individual Action Plans

Another paper from some of my favourite authors (Matt Hallowell & team). This identified the diffusion of different safety innovations across 58 US construction firms. First, they found that project-specific training & safety meetings, worksite inspections, & inductions were the most frequently implemented practices. Further, the adoption rate of 12 common practices were found to… Continue reading Diffusion of Safety Innovations in the Construction Industry

This brief opinion paper from Rene Amalberti may be of interest to my S-II network. It focuses on strategies that can be adopted to protect patients when healthcare systems are under stress but has good info across other industries. First they argue that healthcare systems are under stress as never before. To meet this stress,… Continue reading Managing risk in hazardous conditions – improvisation is not enough

This is interesting study from 1988 evaluated the capability of four hazard identification techniques. Using a collection of prior incidents and accidents, three groups were formed to evaluate which of the contributing factors to the incidents may have been identified if one of these methods had been used prospectively. Of the 157 contributing factors identified… Continue reading Evaluation of the validity of four hazard identification methods with event descriptions

This reviewed “scientifically significant” construction research to highlight the findings related to safety & risk within the industry. 326 scientific journals were included and divided under 11 categories. WAY too much to cover, so I’ll cover a few findings. Results: For accidents, falls represent the main fatal accident risk, with shocks, crushing or hit by… Continue reading Occupational safety in the construction industry