The charity, Association for Perioperative Practice (AfPP), has launched their third nationwide survey in a bid to better understand the impact of human factors on patient safety within the operating theatre team.
AfPP’s first two surveys highlighted the impact that negative cultures within the operating theatre can have on staff wellbeing. As a result of these findings, the Harrogate-based charity now wants to find out more about how human factors can affect not only staff wellbeing but also patient safety in the perioperative environment.
It is well known that delivering healthcare can place individuals, teams and organisations under pressure. Staff have to make difficult decisions in dynamic and unpredictable circumstances. What’s more, healthcare professionals are experiencing occupational burnout and fatigue from the increased stress caused by the Covid-19 Pandemic.
Dawn Stott, CEO at AfPP said: “As an organisation we take patient outcomes very seriously. Human factors are key to enabling safer surgery. Resilience, the ability to manage change, teamwork and support will all be key to helping healthcare workers get through the pressures ahead. Whilst healthcare workers have adapted remarkably quickly to the changes in practice caused by the pandemic, we understand that they continue to face enormous changes. Over the next few months AfPP’s focus will be on what individuals and teams are doing to ensure conditions in the workplace always make the safety of patients the primary concern.”
As the leading membership organisation for the perioperative workforce, the Association for Perioperative Practice put patient and staff safety at the heart of all they do.
Their mission is to improve standards of care and patient safety within the perioperative arena by determining correct standards and promoting best practice, facilitating education and practice development, providing professional support services for perioperative practitioners, providing a forum for partnership with industry and shaping healthcare policy in the UK.
Those working within the perioperative environment and associated areas are invited to provide their honest thoughts and feedback via the online survey at https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/27QV9GH until 18 December.
AfPP has ensured responses will be kept completely anonymous so that theatre practitioners can communicate their experiences and concerns honestly.
To find out more or to join the association, please visit www.afpp.org.uk.
