Applying human factors to improve personal performance and teams working in surgery

The  Confederation of British Surgery (CBS) is delighted to present a FREE Webinar 'Applying human factors to improve personal performance and teams working in surgery' on the 13th November at 7pm. 

The aims of the webinar include:

• To give an overview of error and how it is often multifactorial in origin.
• To highlight the importance of looking after oneself and the wider team every day.
• To be aware of the importance of effective communication, situational awareness, the effects of distraction and lowering authority gradients in the dental team.
• To recognise signs of burnout in yourself and the team.

Learning objectives: 

1. Recognise that error is common and 'normal' in everyday life and clinical dental practice.
2. Optimise individual and wider team performance for better patient care.
3. Awareness of some important factors that can lead to error including poor communication, multitasking and distraction.
4. How to look out for signs of burnout in ourselves and team members.

Learning content:

1. Brief overview of error in healthcare and how common it is (1 in 20 hospital admissions has some form of error). 
2. How optimising our own performance (eating, drinking, importance of breaks and rest, emotion) improves safety.
3. Explore surgical team working - the importance of briefing, what is effective and good communication, how to build individual and team situational awareness, effects of distraction and lowering gradients in the dental team.
4.  A brief overview burnout- recognising it and work life balance and ways to help wellbeing for the surgical team.

Speaker Information:

Professor Peter Brennan is a Consultant Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeon in Portsmouth, specialising in head and neck oncology with a personal chair for his research and education achievements, He has over 800 publications, with 80+ on patient safety and human factors. He is a committed trainer and educator. Peter won the Association of Surgeons in Training (ASiT) 2022 Silver Scalpel Award – the most prestigious accolade across all UK surgical specialties for training excellence.

He has edited 10 specialty textbooks including the definitive 2 volume Maxillofacial Surgery and is also Lead Editor of Gray’s Surgical Anatomy which receives worldwide acclaim.

Peter is interested in human factors (HF) and patient safety, and has established unique collaborations with airline pilots, National Air Traffic Services (NATS) and the Royal Air Force Aerobatic Team (Red Arrows) amongst others. His work improves practice across surgical and medical specialties and includes reducing hierarchy, enhancing team working and raising awareness of many personal factors to reduce medical error. 

In 2019, Peter was awarded a PhD entitled ‘Applying HF to Improve Patient Safety.’ He works with the Royal Colleges, GMC and others to help improve patient safety and better teamworking. He promotes equality and training at every opportunity and has been awarded many national prizes and awards for his work.