Since the Francis Report was published earlier this year, patient care and safety in hospital has been high on the agenda for the NHS. It is a key theme in the curriculum for our nursing and healthcare courses. Nursing lecturers Wayne Robson, Deborah Clark and Nick White are helping to ensure that patient safety is firmly embedded into our teaching as well as introducing a new element called human factors.

Human factors covers teamwork, hierarchy, communication, decision-making and workplace and equipment design. Nick explains the basic concept of human factors: 'We’re all fallible, so we need to create the systems within healthcare to cope with that. Rather than accept these things as errors, we need to build systems to catch those mistakes before they cause harm.'

The College has recently joined forces with the Institute for Healthcare Improvement, an international organisation set up to improve patient safety worldwide. They have 300 ‘chapters’ around the world, run by students who have an interest in patient safety and quality improvement. Sheffield Hallam is planning to launch a Sheffield chapter, along with partner organisations Sheffield Teaching Hospitals and the University of Sheffield.

Wayne says: 'It’s about trying to grow the future workforce in healthcare and educating them in safety and what they can do to improve the quality of services.

'It’s innovative, student-led initiatives like this that will help ensure Sheffield Hallam’s healthcare graduates are leaving the University with patient safety firmly embedded in their working practice.'