Nurses learn how to care for patients. They should also learn how systems can fail them

Nurses play a crucial role in patient care, but they must also be aware of how system failures can negatively impact their ability to provide safe care. Even experienced nurses can make mistakes if they are repeatedly interrupted, given confusing information, or forced to search through multiple computer systems for necessary details.

Research has linked problems during clinical handovers to risks in safe care, and interruptions during medication administration have been associated with errors. The design of the working environment, including the ease of finding important information and the efficiency of technology, significantly affects patient safety. Health care should be designed with the limits of human attention, memory, and energy in mind.

However, human factors and patient safety are not consistently taught during nursing undergraduate training, leading to a lack of preparedness in some nurses. Teaching human factors and ergonomics during nursing degrees could help students recognize and address system-related issues before they begin working independently. This approach would also change their perspective on mistakes, emphasizing that patient safety depends on the conditions in which healthcare professionals are working, not just the individual's actions.

Human factors approaches can help identify and improve problems in health care systems, especially as healthcare becomes increasingly digital. Nurses are well-positioned to notice weaknesses due to their role in managing many aspects of patient care, including using electronic records and medication systems, transferring information between teams, and monitoring patient conditions.

Human factors methods can turn this frontline experience into ways of identifying and improving problems in health care systems.