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1 – 3 of 3Colin Clarke and Lesley-Jane Eales-Reynolds
– The purpose of this paper is to examine if customer care (CC) can be directly linked to patient safety through a human factors (HF) framework.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine if customer care (CC) can be directly linked to patient safety through a human factors (HF) framework.
Design/methodology/approach
Data from an online questionnaire, completed by a convenience healthcare worker sample (n=373), was interrogated using thematic analysis within Vincent et al.’s (1998) HF theoretical framework. This proposes seven areas affecting patient safety: institutional context, organisation and management, work environment, team factors, individual, task and patient.
Findings
Analysis identified responses addressing all framework areas. Responses (597) principally focused on work environment 40.7 per cent (n=243), organisation and management 28.8 per cent (n=172). Nevertheless, reference to other framework areas were clearly visible within the data: teams 10.2 per cent (n=61), individual 6.7 per cent (n=40), patients 6.0 per cent (n=36), tasks 4.2 per cent (n=24) and institution 3.5 per cent (n=21). Findings demonstrate congruence between CC perceptions and patient safety within a HF framework.
Research limitations/implications
The questionnaire requested participants to identify barriers to rather than CC enablers. Although this was at a single site complex organisation, it was similar to those throughout the NHS and other international health systems.
Practical implications
CC can be viewed as consonant with patient safety rather than the potentially dangerous consumerisation stance, which could ultimately compromise patient safety.
Originality/value
This work provides an original perspective on the link between CC and patient safety and has the potential to re-focus healthcare perceptions.
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Keywords
Lesley‐Jane Eales‐Reynolds and Colin Clarke
This study was designed with the intention of exploring the effectiveness of a novel approach to training health services workers to meet the aims of raising awareness of their…
Abstract
Purpose
This study was designed with the intention of exploring the effectiveness of a novel approach to training health services workers to meet the aims of raising awareness of their customer care framework and encouraging a culture of customer service throughout their organisation.
Design/methodology/approach
The impact of the educational intervention was examined using a mixed methods approach involving pre‐ and post‐workshop questionnaires and one‐to‐one, semi‐structured interviews.
Findings
The paper finds that the approach adopted was effective in raising awareness of the customer care framework and in enhancing participant's self‐efficacy in relation to the principles of customer care. Transference to the workplace was dependent on personality and departments having sufficient numbers of staff participating.
Research limitations/implications
Time and resources for the project limited the follow‐up interviews designed to explore if, and to what extent, the learning had had a lasting impact on participants and if it had enabled transference to the workplace. In addition, complications in releasing people from work in order to take part meant that a number of volunteers had to withdraw. This limits the range of data obtained.
Originality/value
This paper describes a novel research‐informed approach to training, involving participants in high fidelity, error‐based simulations and in a research process which facilitated their repeated reflection on the learning. As a result the paper demonstrates large‐scale training of customer care can effectively impact on practice.
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