Reviewing Non-Technical Skills &Organizational Learning: A Comparative Analysis of Critical Safety Factors within the UK’s High-Risk Industries

Accidents in high-tech organisations are often triggered by a concatenation of human and system anomalies and errors, proving destructive to life, property and the environment. Urgent attention is required to minimize such events by training workers in high-risk organisations and ensuring adequate levels of Non-Technical Skills (NTS) training to counter related risks within the spectrum of their daily tasks. Organisational learning becomes equally relevant when industries are inclined towards becoming learning organisations by encouraging and promoting learning to manage safety. A comparative assessment is drawn by examining current practices in aviation and in the oil and gas sectors. The online survey was used to gather primary data, as well as interviewing 15 safety experts across the three sectors and another 15 safety experts recruited as focus groups to establish if NTS and organisational learning are used in safety management. Our sample comprised health and safety experts from the nuclear (n = 124, 54%), aviation (n = 59, 25%), and oil and gas sectors (n = 49, 21%). Findings revealed that the nuclear sector has not fully and officially acknowledged the use of NTS to train workers. The nuclear sector should look inwardly at how safety is managed since there is limited evidence of formal knowledge or techniques for transferring lessons to staff on NTS, which has proven to be a major critical “ingredient” in safety management in high-risk organisations.

Clinical Supervision and Non-Technical Professional Development Skills in the Context of Patient Safety—The Views of Nurse Specialist Students

The aim of the study was to evaluate nurse specialist students’ views of clinical supervision (CS) and its influence on their professional competence development. An additional aim was to interpret the results and link them to non-technical skills and Patient Safety (PS) topics. The research question was: What are the benefits of clinical supervision focusing on non-technical skills in the area of PS? A cross-sectional study of 46 nurse specialist students was conducted by means of questionnaires and exploratory factor analysis. Factors that influenced the nurse specialist students’ competencies were: interpersonal, professional and communication skills in addition to awareness of ethical skills, the importance of teamwork and the benefit of involving patients and their family members in safe care. The results were linked to non-technical skills and PS competencies. Clinical supervision is crucial for the development of non-technical skills and PS competencies among nurse specialist students. However, finding time to reflect and learn from the supervision was reported to be a problem. Over half of the students stated they did not have enough time for supervision. Thus, there is a potential for quality improvement. We recommend that universities should provide formal educational programmes for supervisors focusing on the professional development of students, especially in the area of non-technical skills. In conclusion, CS should be prioritised by management and clinical leaders as it enhances PS.

Short lessons in basic life support improve self-assurance in performing cardiopulmonary resuscitation

BACKGROUND:There are several reasons why resuscitation measures may lead to inferior results:difficulties in team building,delayed realization of the emergency and interruption of chest compression.This study investigated the outcome of a new form of in-hospital cardiopulmonary resuscitation(CPR) training with special focus on changes in self-assurance of potential helpers when faced with emergency situations.METHODS:Following a 12-month period of CPR training,questionnaires were distributed to participants and non-participants.Those non-participants who intended to undergo the training at a later date served as control group.RESULTS:The study showed that participants experienced a significant improvement in selfassurance,compared with their remembered self-assurance before the training.Their self-assurance also was significantly greater than that of the control group of non-participants.CONCLUSION:Short lessons in CPR have an impact on the self-assurance of medical and non-medical personnel.

Methods and Techniques of Electricity Thieving in Pakistan

The situation of electricity in Pakistan has been alarming from the last ten years. The deficiency in electricity has not only obstructed the business activities but also affected the domestic consumers, educational institutes and hospitals. Usually electrical power companies are liable for electricity shortfall and power interruption. However, electricity end consumers are also equally responsible behind strange shortfall and unusual power interruption. Frequently, the consumers use the heavy electrical equipment in their homes including heaters, geysers, irons and water motors which causes the more electricity consumption, load shedding and huge amount of bills. For escaping the huge amount of electricity bill, the consumers commit the illegal and unethical connections. The illegal usage of electrical power failed the power companies to plan schedule load shedding accordingly and the other side the damaged electricity wires or Pole Mount Transformer increased faults due to overburdening, which directly affected on extend power interruption. In addition that, responsible teams of electrical power companies cannot reach instantly to repair faults and prevent the theft. Electricity thieving is social crime committed by the consumers or meter readers which causes the electricity strange shortfall within country. This paper presents the practical demonstration about the common energy theft methods and techniques done by electricity consumers within their home and residential building. In Pakistan EPC (electrical power companies) deploy the traditional electromechanical meters for electricity consumption measurements, however, these meters do not have any real time communication. Therefore there are many easy ways to manipulate the meter reading as well as internal structural of metering system.