Towards a syllabus for resilient health care

Resilience Engineering has become popular in health care as a new approach for improving patient safety. However, to date there is no agreed syllabus for this subject. The aim of this study was to consult the wider resilient health care community of researchers and practitioners to identify topics, concepts and mindsets, and teaching approaches that could form the basis for a resilient health care syllabus. An online survey eliciting free text responses was completed by 11 anonymous participants. There was agreement that topics should cover tools for understanding work-as-done, and that concepts should focus on emergence and complex systems. Teaching should promote a mindset that safety “belongs” to all stakeholders (including clinicians and patients) rather than being the domain of safety engineers. As a result, constructivist pedagogical principles were favored, which emphasize peer learning and sharing of experiences. We found conflicting views about whether traditional methods such as bow-tie analysis should be included in a resilient health care curriculum.