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Quality and service improvement

Why mistakes happen? Understanding human factors

Human factors look at how people really work, make decisions and respond under pressure, and why things can go wrong even when everyone is skilled. This session will help you understand how human factors affect everyday work in health and care, and you’ll come away with practical approaches you can use to support safer practice.

Date Friday, 10 April 2026 10:00 AM - 11:30 AM
Where Details Online Online - MS Teams
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Level Details Beginner
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Radio12210 people viewed this event

What you’ll learn

  • Understand how human factors influence performance, decision making and everyday clinical and operational work.
  • Learn how to recognise early signs of overload in yourself and others, and what to do when pressure starts to affect judgement.
  • Gain confidence in slowing down your thinking, challenging assumptions and improving situational awareness in busy or uncertain environments.
  • Understand how to reduce the impact of cognitive bias and strengthen team communication, especially when things don’t go to plan.
  • Learn how human factors link to patient safety approaches such as systems thinking, Safety II and supportive incident responses.

Who this webinar is for

This webinar is for anyone working in health or care who faces time pressure, complexity or safety critical decisions. It will be particularly useful if you want practical tools to manage workload, support your team and reduce risk in everyday practice.

Lead facilitators

Julie Combes

Julie is Deputy Director at NHS Elect, leading implementation of workforce and training innovations across healthcare systems. Julie began her NHS career as a paediatric intensive care nurse in 2000. Since 2010 she has been involved in workforce education and training undertaking senior leadership roles that support and advise health and care providers locally, regionally and nationally, more recently working for Health Education England.

She has special interest and expertise in workforce redesign and planning, inter professional education, technology enhanced learning, and human factors and ergonomics. She is an associate member of Chartered Institute of Ergonomics and Human Factors, working in partnership to integrate human factors science into healthcare. She strives to lead by creating a positive, collaborative culture through the development of a system that supports the workforce to achieve their potential.

Lydia Lofton

Lydia is an experienced workforce specialist with expertise in clinical education. She has a background as a paediatric intensive care nurse, and extensive experience in NHS hospital trusts, international healthcare systems, academic health science partnerships, and arms-length bodies.

Lydia has designed and delivered interprofessional education, developed regional education networks, and provided system-level leadership for simulation-based education and cancer workforce transformation.

In her current role, Lydia addresses workforce and education challenges by working in partnership with stakeholders in national and regional NHS systems, commissioners, and professional bodies.

Lydia is skilled at facilitating groups and supporting teams to create solutions and resolve conflict. She is a qualified mediator with the International Mediation Institute, focused on workplace and interpersonal conflict.

Lydia completed a Master of Arts in Clinical Education at King’s College London, and specialises in collaborative practice, interprofessional education, team training, human factors and ergonomics. Lydia has previously served as President of the Paediatric Simulation Society (2020-21) and member of the Executive Committee and Board of Directors (2017-2022).

What participants say

90%

of attendees agreed the presenters delivered the session effectively.

“Very informative and made me aware of factors affecting human behaviours, attitudes and the way we interact not just towards people but also to the environment.”