The Field Guide to Understanding Human Error, 2nd Edition

11 Human Factors Data

Before you can begin to re-assemble the puzzle of human performance, you need data. What data do you need, and where do you get it? The first hunch is to say that you need everything you can get. As system models remind you (see the previous chapter), the people whose performance you are trying to understand did not work in a vacuum. They performed by touching almost every aspect of the system around them, and were touched by it in return.

For example, in the most proximal focus, a nurse administered a tenfold drug dose to a baby patient who subsequently died. So you need data about drug labeling and packaging.You also need data about for example fatigue, drug side effects, about scheduling pressures, about task saturation ...