I found this a mildly interesting little paper, focused on the maritime industry, exploring: 1. the relationship between design and accidents 2. how control systems contribute to accidents in critical operations 3. what improvements to rules and regulations can improve sensemaking in safety critical maritime operations. They evaluated accident reports, observed work, literature review and… Continue reading Improvements in rules and regulations to support sensemaking in safety-critical maritime operations

This study explored the differences between SIFs and non-SIF events from utility, oil & gas, commercial, pipeline and specialised construction trades. Providing background: ·       They talk briefly about Heinrich’s work, noting that while Heinrich “did not suggest that the safety pyramid was causal, his work was cited to support the pervasive belief that preventing low-severity… Continue reading Things That Hurt People Are Not the Same as the Things That Kill People: Key Differences in the Proximal Causes of Low-and High-Severity Construction Injuries

This new study may interest people – it explored the role of ‘safety culture’ (SC) on European firm injury and financial performance. They used ESG data from 829 European public firms. Their conceptualisation of SC was via the sum of 6 dichotomous variables – policy employee health and safety, policy supply chain health and safety,… Continue reading Safety culture, safety performance and financial performance. A longitudinal study

How do you navigate psychological safety in the context of debriefs/after-action reviews? These two unrelated open access papers provide an overview. It’s argued that: Refs: 1. Kolbe, M., Eppich, W., Rudolph, J., Meguerdichian, M., Catena, H., Cripps, A., … & Cheng, A. (2020). Managing psychological safety in debriefings: a dynamic balancing act. BMJ simulation & technology… Continue reading Managing psychological safety and its threats during debriefs/after-action reviews

This may interest people – it systematically reviewed the evidence on the effectiveness of behavioural interventions in decreasing fatal and non-fatal injuries within high-risk industries. NB.: 1) This included a pretty broad conceptualisation of behavioural programs, e.g. drug and alcohol testing, training; 2) I’m avoiding philosophical discussions/issues people may have with behavioural interventions; you’re free… Continue reading Effective Components of Behavioural Interventions Aiming to Reduce Injury within the Workplace: A Systematic Review

This study explored how frontline healthcare practitioners resolve issues by either fixing on the spot and forgetting or fixing the problem and reporting it into a reporting system. In-depth interviews with 40 healthcare practitioners in a tertiary care hospital was undertaken. Providing background: ·         A practitioner about to administer medication to a patient realises that… Continue reading Fix and forget or fix and report: a qualitative study of tensions at the front line of incident reporting

Do increasing degrees of operational complexity and supply chain complexity negatively impact occupational injuries? Yes, according to a new study. This study posted soon explored the links using US data, and how absolute level of complexity and changes in the level of complexity exert a negative effect on a company’s safety performance. They differentiated between… Continue reading Operational and supply chain complexity found to negatively affect occupational injuries

Are the things that kill people different from the things that don’t? In some ways yes, according to new research. This new paper from Matthew Hallowell and team compared a selection of SIFs (serious injuries and fatalities) versus LSIs (low-severity injuries). Summary posted next week – but the study is open access, so you can… Continue reading New study finds key differences between SIFs (fatal & serious injuries) and low-severity injuries: absent direct controls

Here’s a couple of interesting papers, exploring the history, methods and applications of risk matrices “Retrospective on the risk matrix” parts I & II, primarily from an engineering perspective. Unfortunately behind paywalls, but the pirates among you may be able to locate them (Or try ResearchGate/the author). Not summarising them, but some key points across… Continue reading Retrospective on the risk matrix: “Existing evidence suggests that the RM is unreliable” and “No testing or mathematical foundation was found”

This 2018 article has already done the rounds – but may mildly interest people who have not read it; titled “Integrating the best of BBS & HOP”. It discusses the strengths of leveraging both HOP and BBS perspectives to improve workplace safety. Probably not the most powerful arguments from both sides, but at least it’s… Continue reading Integrating the best of BBS & HOP