Pages 9-10: Psychology
Page 9: Human Factors
Patient Safety: Focusing on the Human Factor
The human cost of medical errors is high. Based on the findings of one major study, medical errors kill some 44,000 people in U.S. hospitals each year.Another study puts the number much higher, at 98,000. Even using the lower estimate, morepeople die from medical mistakes each year than from highway accidents, breast cancer,or AIDS.
—the National Academies (American Hospital Association. Hospital Statistics. Chicago. 1999.)
National accidents or sudden tragedies, such as the Columbia disaster or 9-11, grab people’s attention and in their wake leave a chorus of demands for improved standards and safeguards. Yet, everyday hundreds of people quietly die in equally tragic-and preventable-ways in our nation’s health system.
In 2000, the Institute of Medicine’s To Err is Human shocked America when it reported that around two-thirds of all medical errors are preventable and that the majority of errors resulted from basic flaws in the health system’s organization. In the years following the report, new research has tried to resolve defects in the health system. Unfortunately, the majority of funding that has been received for research into this problem has been delivered to medical doctors—essentially promoting a uni-disciplinary approach to the problem of patient safety, which has not uncovered an adequate solution for the dilemma.
In the Department of Psychology and the Institute for Simulation & Training, though, faculty members have a different vision for how to improve patient safety. It begins by establishing a Consortium. The Consortium will be composed of UCF’s Psychology Department, School of Nursing, IST and Industrial Engineering, University of Miami, University of Florida, Florida Hospital and the Florida Emergency Medicine Foundation.
Dr. Eduardo Salas, Trustee Chair and Professor of Psychology, is leading the effort. Dr. Salas suggests that “The Consortium will approach the patient safety problem in a new way: both in its multi-disciplinary approach as well as in its focus—the human element. The idea is to create synergies among scientists and practitioners as to provide scientifically-based, human-centered practical solutions to the health care providers.”
The Consortium will be comprised of expert teams of physicians, surgeons, nurses, trainers, and human performance experts (a unique position not available in this country), who will design, develop, and evaluate new tools, techniques and best practices for emergency medicine and health care patient safety.
Then, research results will be translated into meaningful practical guidance and disseminated to doctors and nurses “on the front lines.”
The Consortium is expected to be formed in 2005 on the main UCF campus and the Partnership II Building (currently under construction in the UCF Research Park). Initially, the Consortium’s research will focus on emergency medicine, but gradually the research will broaden to include all aspects of medical error, including evaluative studies, monitoring, and continual progress toward minimizing medical accidents.”
Page 10: Dr. Peter Hancock Combats Stress
Stress can interfere with decision making in any discipline; in military situations, the effective handling of stress can mean life or death. Provost’s Distinguished Research Professor (PREP) Dr.Peter Hancock is currently studying the problem of decision making under stress, particularly for soldiers. Working with a $5 million, five-year Multi-University Research Initiative (MURI) from the Department of Defence entitled “Mitigating Stress, Workload, and Fatigue in the Electronic Battlefield,” Dr. Hancock and his students are making great strides towards understanding and alleviating some of the stressors encountered by today’s infantry.
Much of their research concerns stress under changing contexts. For example, Hancock notes the difference between walking a plank near the ground, or walking the same plank suspended between two skyscrapers. Shifts in context can create stress.
Dr. Hancock and his students are applying existing models of behavior, created by the U.S. Army, to simulations. They are also constructing new models.
The MURI grant was awarded in June 2001. Dr. Hancock calls the award “a great privilege.” Other universities involved in the project include the University of Minnesota, Kansas State University, Catholic University in Washington, D.C., and Florida Institute of Technology in Melbourne.
“The most gratifying aspect of my work is generating leaders of the future,” says Hancock, who came to UCF from the University of Minnesota in December 2000. “I hope I am one of the PREP success stories. I came here because I have a lot of like-minded professional colleagues here,” explains Hancock. He hopes to act as a catalyst under PREP to draw more faculty and students to UCF for human factors research. He says UCF is already one of the top three or four universities in the world in his field. “UCF is one of the largest, fastest growing universities. There’s something very important about being in a growing environment. What better place do you want to be?”
“UCF is one of the largest, fastest growing universities. There’s something very important about being in a growing environment. What better place do you want to be?”
— Peter Hancock
Dr. Hancock is the author of over 300 refereed scientific articles and publications. He has received numerous awards, including the Sir Frederic Taylor Award of the Ergonomics Society of Great Britain for lifetime achievement.
Page 10: Clinical Psychology
The APA Accredited Clinical Psychology program follows the scientist-practitioner model, and uses competency-based modes of instruction that focus on research. UCF Clinical Psychology subspecialties include clinical-child and health psychology.
- 71% of UCF’s Clinical Psychology graduate students have authored or co-authored a paper for a professional or scientific journal.
- 98% of the students have presented papers at professional conferences.
- 100% of the students belong to one or more professional organizations.
In 2003 the Clinical Psychology program received full APA accreditation for five years, which is a notable accomplishment for such a young program.
www.psych.ucf.edu
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