Manage and mitigate human errors

He points out that this may be because the modern brain is the same brain that was designed for our predecessors who had to hunt to survive while evading the attentions of predators. Without any firmware update human cognitive adaption has not been completely successful.

Humans still get the physical symptoms of fear that were the property of the caveman to assist in the “fight or flight” decision: The sweating to aid cooling, raised heartrate for oxygenation, dilation of the pupils for increased vision and the visceral response to make the body lighter for increased speed. These same physical responses are still displayed by most patients when they visit hospital. So, why has the adaption of human cognition systems been inadequate for the demands of the healthcare professional? Professor James Reason explains that error can never be eliminated but can be managed.1 In simple terms, there are two distinct cognitive processes: firstly there is the conscious cognitive process which is used when a task is new or novel and secondly there is an automatic cognitive process where the task has been practiced and perfected and this process occurs at a subconscious level. The salient point is that the working memory is capacity limited. It is also very effortful to be using the working memory and it is the least preferred option.

Conscious cognition