75 | Dr. Carl Horsley on human factors, system safety & intensive care

Dr. Carl Horsley is an Intensive Care specialist at Middlemore Hospital in Auckland, having previously completed training in Emergency Medicine. He also is the Clinical Lead for System Safety at the Health Quality & Safety Commission, with a focus on understanding the way in which the wider healthcare system shapes the conditions in which care is provided.

He has recently completed an MSc in Human Factors and System Safety at Lund University, Sweden and is part of the Resilient Healthcare Society, an international collaboration of researchers, clinicians and safety scientists. His current focus is on how to bring together Te Ao Māori and modern safety science to create a system that supports good care at all levels.

In this episode, we discuss his shift from training in emergency medicine to intensive care, his work in human factors and system safety and what the practical implementation of this looks like, creating psychologically safe workplaces, the three phases experienced by doctors when causing harm/adverse events, and advice for prospective ICU applicants. 

Chapters

• 0:00 Carl Horsley
• 1:33 Finding medicine
• 2:40 Finding emergency medicine, then ICU
• 5:20 Shifting careers after being a specialist
• 6:13 Day-to-day in ICU
• 8:15 Work-life integration in ICU
• 14:16 Human factors and system safety
• 19:48 Creating a culture/team of valuable members
• 21:35 Highlights and low lights of ICU
• 24:44 Advice for future trainees
• 26:24 Creating boundaries in ICU
• 29:21 Causing harm and making mistakes - the 3 phases
• 37:07 Prospective applicants