Define human factors and apply systems thinking, including active failures, latent conditions and work-as-imagined versus work-as-done, to New Zealand adverse events.
Classify unsafe acts as slips, lapses, mistakes or violations and match each to effective preventive actions.
Recognise cognitive biases such as anchoring, premature closure and fixation, and apply diagnostic time-outs and crisis rules to counter them.
Analyse how interruptions, workload, stress and fatigue degrade performance, and apply personal readiness checks and escalation of unsafe workload.
Build and share situational awareness and use NZEWS, MEWS and Kōrero mai to recognise and escalate deterioration.
Rank safety actions by strength and propose design-based improvements for medicines, devices, alarms and digital systems, including AI tools.
Use ISBAR, closed-loop communication, briefings and checklists, and apply crisis resource management principles in a team emergency.
Speak up using graded assertiveness and describe leader behaviours that build psychological safety in culturally diverse teams.
Explain how HDC, responsible authorities, the HPDT and HQSC's 2023 national adverse events policy approach systems and individual accountability.
Write a reflective account and remediation plan that shows specific personal, team and system insight for your recertification record.
Who this course is for
Registered health practitioners under the HPCA Act 2003 in all professions and settings, including doctors, nurses, midwives, pharmacists, oral health practitioners, paramedics and allied health professionals, and clinical leaders responsible for safety and quality.
Structured learning and a written reflection to show insight after a complaint, an investigation or a responsible authority inquiry.
Routine CPD
Focused learning on a core standard of practice, with a certificate and reflection for your portfolio.
About this course
This course applies the science of human factors to everyday health care in Aotearoa New Zealand. It explains why capable, caring practitioners make errors, and how cognition, attention, workload, fatigue, situational awareness, equipment and digital design, teamwork and hierarchy shape safe performance. It then shows how to use that knowledge: protecting high-risk tasks, debiasing clinical reasoning, escalating deterioration, choosing strong safety fixes, communicating with ISBAR and closed-loop methods, speaking up, and contributing to learning reviews under the Health Quality & Safety Commission's national adverse events policy.
It is written for registered health practitioners in every profession and setting: doctors, nurses, midwives, pharmacists, oral health practitioners, paramedics, physiotherapists, medical radiation technologists and other allied professionals, in hospitals, general practice, community pharmacy, aged residential care, rural and kaupapa Māori services. Each section analyses real Health and Disability Commissioner decisions, from a missed pulmonary embolism and an unrecognised oesophageal intubation to a retained swab, a dispensing error and delayed escalation in maternity and intensive care.
Human factors matters in New Zealand because the Code of Rights expects services of an appropriate standard, because HQSC's 2023 policy requires a systems approach to harm, and because HDC, responsible authorities and the Health Practitioners Disciplinary Tribunal increasingly examine both individual practice and the systems around it. Understanding human factors helps you prevent harm, explain honestly how an error happened, and show specific, credible insight if a concern is raised about your practice.
Course details
Learning time
Approximately 3 hours (estimated learning time including knowledge checks, reflection and assessment)
Standards covered
Code of Health and Disability Services Consumers' Rights (Rights 4, 5 and 6; clause 3); HQSC Healing, learning and improving from harm: National adverse events policy 2023 and Guide to doing a learning review; HQSC patient deterioration programme (NZEWS, MEWS, Kōrero mai) and Safe Surgery NZ; HDC Guidance on open disclosure policies (2019); HPCA Act 2003 (health pathway ss 45–51, s 44, s 100); Health and Safety at Work Act 2015; Medical Council Good medical practice, Unprofessional behaviour and AI guidance (2026); Nursing Council Code of Conduct and standards of competence; Midwifery Council Code of Conduct; Pharmacy Council Code of Ethics 2018; Dental Council Standards Framework
Format
Self-paced, gated lessons with knowledge checks, case studies and reflection
Assessment
20 scenario-based questions, 80% to pass (16 of 20)
Outcome
Certificate of completion and a written reflection for your CPD record
Alignment
Mapped to the Code of Rights and to the safety, teamwork and communication standards of New Zealand's responsible authorities under the HPCA Act 2003; suitable for professional development plans and recertification programmes where relevant to your scope
Recognising and responding to deterioration in New Zealand
When escalation fails: learning from HDC decisions
5Design, equipment and digital systems3 lessons
Designing for humans: why some fixes work and others don't
Equipment, medicines, alarms and the physical environment
Digital health, electronic records and artificial intelligence
6Teams, communication and speaking up4 lessons
Non-technical skills and crisis resource management
Structured communication, briefings and checklists
Hierarchy, speaking up and psychological safety
Leading and following safely in multidisciplinary teams
7When things go wrong: accountability, learning and insight3 lessons
Human factors in the national adverse events system
Fair accountability: what human factors explains and what it does not
Supporting colleagues and showing insight through a human factors lens
8Conclusion and key points1 lesson
Conclusion and key points
9References and further reading1 lesson
References and further reading
10Your reflective account1 lesson
Your reflective account
Assessment and certificate
Final assessment
20scenario-based questions
Pass mark 80%: 16 correct out of 20
Knowledge checks in each section as you go
Tests whether you can apply the standards, not recall a page
Not passed yet? Review the sections and retake it
Certificate of completion
A certificate of completion for your learning portfolio.
Your name, the course title and the estimated learning time (record the time you actually spend)
Completion date and a unique certificate ID that can be verified
Ready to download as a PDF as soon as you complete the course
Fitness To Practice
Certificate of Completion
This certifies that
Your Name
has successfully completed
Human Factors and Patient Safety
Completed12 Oct 2026
3hours (estimated)
Certificate IDFTS-7Q4K-2M9X
Continuing professional development record — New Zealand
Your reflective account
The course includes a structured reflective account template: guided prompts to record what you learned, how you will apply it and how the change will show in your practice. It gives you written evidence of insight after a concern, and a ready record for your CPD portfolio.
Write it in your own words and leave out anything that could identify a patient, a colleague or a case. If you have an open complaint or case, talk to your adviser before reflecting on it in writing.
Questions about this course
What will the human factors course change on my next shift?
Practical habits: protecting high-risk tasks from interruption, personal readiness checks, diagnostic time-outs against anchoring and premature closure, escalating unsafe workload, ISBAR and closed-loop communication, briefings and checklists, and graded assertiveness when you need to speak up to someone more senior.
How does the course classify errors?
It separates slips, lapses, mistakes and violations and matches each to preventive actions that work, then explains active failures, latent conditions and work-as-imagined versus work-as-done using New Zealand adverse events. That shows why stronger design-based fixes usually beat reminders and retraining.
Does the course include digital systems and AI tools?
Yes. A section on design, equipment and digital systems shows how alarms, devices, medicine packaging, electronic records and AI tools shape errors, and how to rank safety actions by strength when you propose an improvement to your team or organisation.
How do human factors relate to accountability when something goes wrong?
The course explains how HDC, responsible authorities, the Tribunal and HQSC's 2023 national adverse events policy separate system learning from individual accountability, and helps you write a reflective account and remediation plan showing personal, team and system insight. No regulatory outcome is promised.
Who recognises the human factors course for CPD?
It takes 3 hours (estimated) online at your own pace, ends with 20 questions (16 correct to pass) and costs NZ$139.
How this course was built
Official sources only
Every legal and regulatory point comes from primary sources: the HPCA Act 2003, the responsible authorities' standards and the Code of Health and Disability Services Consumers' Rights. Anything we cannot confirm is left out.
Original, edition by edition
Lessons, scenarios and assessment questions are written by us for each edition separately, then checked for accuracy, teaching quality and fair assessment before publication.
Reviewed when rules change
When a code, standard or law changes, the affected courses are reviewed and updated. Reported errors in legal or regulatory facts are corrected first.
Run or contribute to a learning review: terms of reference, review conversations, network of influences maps, sensemaking and actions that change systems.
Identify, assess and control clinical risk under the Code of Rights, Ngā Paerewa, the HQSC adverse events policy and New Zealand workplace health and safety law.
Honest communication when care goes wrong: HDC open disclosure guidance, the HQSC adverse events policy, ACC treatment injury and culturally safe apology.
