Delivering excellence in health and social care at an individual, team and organisational level is not just desirable but achievable. The philosophy of this CIEHF recognised course is that for high-quality, safer care to flourish, every member of staff must be committed to, and play their part in, an integrated approach to care. The application of a human factors approach is also crucial if real progress is to be made. A human factors approach involves applying theory, data and design methods about how humans interact with their environment to make it easier for work to be done in the right way.
The programme develops and equips critical advocates and ambassadors for quality, safety and governance in health and social care. It also enables you to apply comprehensive knowledge, understanding, expertise and advanced skills to lead a human factors-based project in the work place to enhance the quality, safety and governance of care. The programme is suitable for you if you work in the public, independent and voluntary sectors, or any other professional field including clinical and support services.
To maximise your success on this programme you need a viable project in line with your departmental or organisational priorities and agreed by your relevant organisational representative and programme leader. Throughout this course you will have access to qualified CIEHF members. You will be asked to complete a brief human factors-based quality improvement project overview form to support your application.We expect that you will have prior knowledge and/or experience of change management, leadership and quality improvement science or a willingness to independently increase your knowledge in these areas before beginning the course.
Professional accreditation
This course is recognised by the Chartered Institute of Ergonomics & Human Factors
You develop in-depth, specialist knowledge of human factors and gain experience in using this to enhance the quality, safety and governance of care. You also study improvement science, leading change and a multi-perspective approach to determining and measuring performance and the impact of change. This includes planning an evaluation study based on the change you have implemented.
Course structure
Core modules
Modules offered may vary.
How you learn
The programme is taught in short study blocks spread across the academic year over a total of 14 contact days. We use a range of teaching methods including lectures and workshops, student-led seminars, action learning, interactive and online learning activities, directed and self-directed study activities. You are supported by module tutors with extensive experience in this subject area and the programme leader who is a member of the founding cohort for the NHS England and Health Foundation Q Initiative.
How you are assessed
We use a range of assessment modes throughout the programme. These include an essay analysing a quality, safety and governance issue using a human factors approach, a project-based evaluation research critique, and a poster presentation and oral defence of a change project.
Formative processes include an informal presentation on the improvement project plan and initial implementation. This is an opportunity for you to receive early development feedback. Presentations are made to a small panel drawn from the critical friends stakeholder support forum whose members participate in student assessment and support programme design and delivery. This group comprises service users and carers, employer representatives and academic staff to ensure that a person-centred approach extends to all aspects of the programme, maximising employer/organisational benefit.
Graduates from this programme are equipped with specialist human factors knowledge, expertise and experience as well as a range of more generic attributes such as advanced reasoning and decision-making skills. You are able to work collaboratively, present and research. You also have strong ICT skills that highly sought after by employers.
The programme is relevant for you if you work in, or would like to work in a specialist quality, safety or governance role, or one dealing with human factors.
This MSc in Human Factors and Ergonomics aims to equip students with the knowledge and skills required to design products, jobs / tasks and environments from the human perspective. If you are interested in people, technology and design, then this could be the course for you.
In this course you will learn about a range of human characteristics (physical, cognitive, social and emotional) as they relate to our interactions with jobs, environments, products, services and other people. You will graduate with a postgraduate qualification that is increasingly desirable in industry and provides the necessary knowledge and skills to address human factors issues for the 21st century.
Key facts:
Demand for human factors and safety expertise continues to grow within aviation as well as other safety critical industries.
This course has been designed to provide industry with equipped graduates who can make a real and lasting improvement to performance and safety through the application of skills and knowledge learnt through a mix of lectures and practical exercises.
This course attracts a wide variety of students from aviation professionals in civil and military domains to high-quality graduates in engineering and social science disciplines. The wide range of skills and knowledge represented by students on the course provides a learning environment unique to here.
Delivered through the specialist Safety and Accident Investigation Centre, operating for over 30 years to support global safety and investigation, this course is unique in that it synthesises the study of human factors with the study of safety and safety assessment, creating a powerful combination to really add-on value in applied aviation and safety critical contexts.
It is designed to provide industry with successful and well equipped graduates who can make a real and lasting improvement to performance and safety through the application of skills and knowledge learned on the course. Demand for human factors and safety expertise continues to be a growing area within aviation as well as other safety critical industries. Safety critical systems require high human performance in addition to engineering excellence to meet the safety and business requirements of the aviation industry. To meet these demands, the design of systems must match, support and augment the capabilities of the user.
We are very well located for visiting part-time students from all over the world, and offers a range of library and support facilities to support your studies. This enables students from all over the world to complete this qualification whilst balancing work/life commitments.
The MSc comprises 12 modules; eight compulsory and two of the optional taught modules; and two group project modules. The PgCert consists of three compulsory modules with the remaining modules selected by yourself. You also complete an individual research project.
Group project
Two group projects are completed by students:
The Capstone Group Project will provide a simulated industrial environment where knowledge and skills gained from the taught components of the course can be consolidated and applied to solving a human factors and safety problem.
The Applied Safety Assessment module will provide students with an opportunity to apply the knowledge and skills learned in the Safety Assessment of Aircraft Systems module, in a practical scenario. In addition, the module aims to equip students with the ability to conduct a comprehensive safety assessment on an airframe whist working in a team, and to present the group work both orally and in a written report.
Individual project
Each MSc student is required to undertake an individual research project. The output of this project is a written report presented in the format of a scientific paper. The project aims to provide students with an opportunity to apply the technical and analytical skills taught during the course, in a practical way. The individual research project is a chance to study a specific subject or problem area in much greater depth and use some of the techniques learned during the course. You will be assigned a supervisor who will help to guide you in your research.
Previous Individual Research Projects included:
Assessment
Taught modules 40%, Group projects 20%, Individual research project 40%
There are strong employment prospects for graduates in safety-related management and operational positions. Course graduates generally find suitable employment in a range of safety and human factors related roles. Previous graduates of the course have been successful in gaining employment with:
This part time course is designed to give you human factors and ergonomics experience required in a range of industries.
The programme is designed to give you the human factors or ergonomics experience required in a wide range of manufacturing, service and process industries, enforcement agencies such as Local Authorities and the health service, as well as a grounding for a career in research.
You will be taught by a team who are part of the internationally recognised Human Factors Research group and work as researchers and consultants in ergonomics and can share their experiences of applying ergonomics in the real world.
key facts:
This part time course is designed to give you ergonomics and human factors experience needed for a range of industries.
The Applied Ergonomics and Human Factors (Distance Learning) Postgraduate Certificate is specially designed to be undertaken by employees in any organisation who need to apply ergonomics principles to their work.
The course will provide an understanding of the key issues related to workplace ergonomics and work design and will also direct students towards additional resources to facilitate the learning process. It has a flexible structure which allows you to manage when and where you study. We will provide you with the support you need throughout your course, through telephone, email and online tutorials.
You will be taught by a team who actively work as researchers and consultants and can share their experience of applying ergonomics to the real world.
Key facts:
This 3-year part-time online MSc programme in Patient Safety and Clinical Human Factors aims to support any graduate health care professionals (ranging from nurses to surgeons and anaesthetists) in using evidence-based tools and techniques to improve the reliability and safety of everyday health care systems and processes.
Applicants for this degree will be looking to distinguish themselves as being experienced in patient safety and, in some may, looking to move towards specialising or taking a management lead in this field. The programme will draw on teaching materials from a global network of enthusiasts.
Year One will give a broad introduction into the current state of safety in health care, how harm comes to patients and a detailed understanding of clinical human factors, ergonomics.
Year Two will then go from the state of healthcare to look at how we can improve safety in healthcare. This involves examining how good teamwork influences patient outcomes, as well as improving healthcare and medicine management. We will also focus on quality improvement research and methodologies.
Year Three will follow the highly successful iterative module used by the Masters in Surgical Sciences, involving submission of a project outline, abstract submission with poster preparation, and completion of a dissertation.
Due to the unique completely online nature of the pedagogy, the programme would be an attractive option for those professionals wishing to secure academic credit or a higher degree in patient safety and who are unable to commit to attend on-campus teaching.
This 3-year part-time online MSc programme in Patient Safety and Clinical Human Factors aims to support any graduate health care professionals (ranging from nurses to surgeons and anaesthetists) in using evidence-based tools and techniques to improve the reliability and safety of everyday health care systems and processes.
Applicants for this degree will be looking to distinguish themselves as being experienced in patient safety and, in some may, looking to move towards specialising or taking a management lead in this field. The programme will draw on teaching materials from a global network of enthusiasts.
Year One will give a broad introduction into the current state of safety in health care, how harm comes to patients and a detailed understanding of clinical human factors, ergonomics.
Year Two will then go from the state of healthcare to look at how we can improve safety in healthcare. This involves examining how good teamwork influences patient outcomes, as well as improving healthcare and medicine management. We will also focus on quality improvement research and methodologies.
Year Three will follow the highly successful iterative module used by the Masters in Surgical Sciences, involving submission of a project outline, abstract submission with poster preparation, and completion of a dissertation.
Due to the unique completely online nature of the pedagogy, the programme would be an attractive option for those professionals wishing to secure academic credit or a higher degree in patient safety and who are unable to commit to attend on-campus teaching.
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