SafetyInsights.org

Our recent study of 44 major or fatal accident reports in the process, chemical, pipeline, mining, oil & gas industries explored how audits failed prior to the accident (according to the investigation). I’ll cover some findings over a couple of posts. Note that hindsight bias, counterfactual reasoning and second order/double hermeneutics are a recurring and… Continue reading Major accident audit failures: a failure to understand and a failure to sufficiently act

A really interesting study that quantified the energy magnitude and intensities of various fatal and non-fatal accidents; energy estimates which then can be used to predict the severity of incidents. >500 injury reports were analysed. There’s way too much conceptual background and discussion in this paper for me to cover (e.g. entire sections discussing energy… Continue reading Energy-based safety risk assessment: does magnitude and intensity of energy predict injury severity?

This coroner’s report detailed the sad case of a medical misdiagnosis, resulting in a death. Here, a young adult died due to undiagnosed bacterial meningitis, diagnosed primarily as middle ear infection (the ear infection led to meningitis). Interestingly, the coroner framed the core findings using the Swiss Cheese metaphor (** despite its limitations in complex… Continue reading Coroners report on fatal medical misdiagnosis: availability bias, anchoring, fatigue and “voluminous guidelines” that sit unread

This study explored the beliefs and organisational contexts of  nursing aide (caregivers henceforth) assaults and their subsequent reporting of these events. Although this data is a pretty specific cohort and setting (rural nursing homes), the social and systems lenses that the authors take, and the silence resulting from blame attributions have broader applications. Providing context:… Continue reading Taking the Hit: Focusing on Caregiver “Error” Masks Organizational-Level Risk Factors for Nursing Aide Assault

What are the relationships between leader humility, psychological safety and employee engagement? A study to be posted soon explored these links via survey of 140 workers. Leader humility is “an interpersonal characteristic that emerges in social contexts that connotes (a) a manifested willingness to view oneself accurately, (b) a displayed appreciation of others’ strengths and… Continue reading Links between leader humility, psychological safety and follower/employee engagement

What is the relationship between the magnitude and intensity of energy in workplace sources on fatal and non-fatal accidents? A 2017 study to be posted soon explored these links based on 500 injury reports. Various energy sources exist in workplaces, e.g. gravitational, kinetic, radiation, chemical etc., hence different means are needed to calculate energy magnitudes.… Continue reading Relationships between workplace hazardous energy and fatal vs non-fatal injury

This studied the extent to which psychosocial hazards (categorised under mental health disorders, MHD) and physical hazards (under musculoskeletal disorders, MSD) are covered under work-related MHD & MSD risk management practices across 3 industries and the extent of a disparity towards physical hazards. Procedures from 3 high risk industry sectors along with interviews with 25… Continue reading Work-related musculoskeletal and mental health disorders: Are workplace policies and practices based on contemporary evidence?

I found this an interesting study that systematically reviewed the evidence on the physical and psychological hazards in the gig economy system. Findings were framed via Rasmussen’s risk framework. It’s open access, so you can freely read the full paper. The gig economy is an economic model “where companies temporarily hire individuals as independent contractors… Continue reading Physical and psychological hazards in the gig economy system: A systematic review

I found these three extracts from major accident reports pretty apt – they featured in our latest study on audit failures in high hazard industries. The first two examples came from coronial reports in mining. It’s a shame that such important findings are so frequently ‘written in blood’. 1. 2. They highlight the false assurance… Continue reading The false safety of interlocking management systems of audits, reports and rules

This systematic review evaluated the evidence between psychosocial factors and safety in high-risk industries. I think it’s more of a reference paper (one you look up or refer to the tables), than one I can summarise, since most of the findings are captured in tables, but I’ll give it a shot. 40 studies met inclusion… Continue reading Psychosocial factors and safety in high-risk industries: A systematic literature review