Articles That May Change Your Practice: Crew Resource Management

Abstract

To err is human. Human factors refer to environmental, organizational, and job factors and individual characteristics that influence behavior and affect performance and safety. Human factors account for many of the adverse events and errors in both medicine and aviation. In 1979, crew recourse management (CRM) was introduced for aviation personnel after a number of accidents in which human factors were identified as the cause. CRM led to a decrease in events and has been shown to be essential in effective decision making during time-critical emergencies. Human factors have the same impact on patient care in clinical medicine. This is particularly true in areas in which an interprofessional workforce undertakes decisions and procedures in a time-sensitive manner. Russell D. MacDonald, MD, MPH, FCFP, FRCPC, is the medical director and chair of the Quality Care Committee at Orange Transport Medicine; an associate professor at the University of Toronto; and an attending staff member at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. He can be reached at [email protected] .