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Learning safely from error: Reconsidering the ethics of simulation-based medical education through ethnography

Pelletier, C; Kneebone, R; Rutter, J; Copland, F; (2018) Learning safely from error: Reconsidering the ethics of simulation-based medical education through ethnography. (Working Papers in Urban Language and Literacies 237). School of Education Communication & Society, King's College London: London, UK. Green open access

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Abstract

‘Human factors’ is an influential rationale in the UK national health service to understand mistakes, risk and safety. Although there have been studies examining its implications in workplaces, there has been little investigation of how it is taught, as a form of professional morality. This article draws on an observational study of human factors teaching in four hospital simulation centres in London, UK. Its main argument is that the teaching of human factors is realised through an identification and positive evaluation of ‘non-technical skills’ and the espousal of ‘non-judgemental’ pedagogy, both of which mean that mistakes cannot be made. Professional solidarity is then maintained on the absence of mistakes. We raise questions about the ethics of this teaching. The study is situated within a history of ethnographic accounts of medical mistakes, to explore the relationship between claims to professional knowledge and claims about failure.

Type: Working / discussion paper
Title: Learning safely from error: Reconsidering the ethics of simulation-based medical education through ethnography
Open access status: An open access version is available from UCL Discovery
Publisher version: https://kcl.academia.edu/WorkingPapersinUrbanLangu...
Language: English
Additional information: This version is the version of record. For information on re-use, please refer to the publisher’s terms and conditions.
UCL classification: UCL
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education > UCL Institute of Education
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education > UCL Institute of Education > IOE - Culture, Communication and Media
URI: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10044447
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