ED Cognitive Work Analysis

Emergency Department Cognitive Work Analysis

Project members - Macquarie University

• Clay-Williams, Robyn (Primary Chief Investigator, Project Lead)
• Austin, Elizabeth

Project Contact:

Associate Professor Robyn Clay-Williams E: robyn.clay-williams@mq.edu.au

Project sponsors

NSW Health EMC Fellowship

Project main description

This project, led by Associate Professor Robyn Clay-Williams aimed to establish an understanding of Emergency Department (ED) processes to inform productive safety interventions in NSW public hospitals. Working with Blacktown Hospital ED in Western Sydney, the research program translated, for the first time, Cognitive Work Analysis (CWA) methodology to healthcare.

Dr Elizabeth Austin and Clay-Williams, in collaboration with a team that included seminal CWA expert Professor Paul Salmon, developed a series of CWA models to understand ED functioning and to provide insight into strategies for designing possible improvements to models of care. The models developed as part of this program are now under consideration by the NSW Emergency Care Institute (part of the NSW Agency for Clinical Innovation) for evaluating ED quality improvement interventions prior to implementation. While the models were developed specifically for Blacktown ED, they are grounded in NSW ED policy and practice guidelines, so adaptable for any NSW ED.

Publications related to this research

Austin E, Blakely B, Salmon P, Braithwaite J, Clay-Williams R. Technology in the Emergency Department: Using Cognitive Work Analysis to model and design sustainable systems. Safety Science 2021

Austin E, Blakely B, Salmon P, Braithwaite J, Clay-Williams R. The scope for adaptive capacity in Emergency Departments: Modelling performance constraints using Control Task Analysis and Social Organisational Cooperation Analysis. Ergonomics 2021

Austin E, Blakely B, Salmon P, Braithwaite J, Clay-Williams R. Identifying constraints on everyday clinical practice: Applying Work Domain Analysis to Emergency Department care. Human Factors 2021 https://doi.org/10.1177/0018720821995668

Austin E, Blakely B, Tufanaru C, Selwood A, Braithwaite J, Clay-Williams R. Strategies to measure and improve Emergency Department performance: A scoping review. Scandinavian Journal of Trauma, Resuscitation and Emergency Medicine 2020:15;28(1):1-14. 55. https://doi.org/10.1186/s13049-020-00749-2

Project status

Current (2017-ongoing)

Centres and Research Stream related to this project

Centre for Healthcare Resilience and Implementation Science

Human Factors and Resilience research stream