Patient Safety and Clinical Human Factors

The emphasis of the module is to offer an evidenced-based and coherent approach to patient safety and clinical excellence.

Human factors, often referred to as ergonomics, is an established scientific discipline used in other safety critical industries. The principles and practices taught on this module will optimise human performance, through better understanding the behaviour of individuals, their interactions with each other and with their environment.

By acknowledging these limitations, human factors offers ways to minimise and mitigate human frailties and improve patient safety.

The module is part of the Advanced Clinical Practice MSc, and can also be taken as a stand-alone module.

Who is it for?

This course is for registered healthcare professionals. Anyone working in a profession that is registered with the Health & Care Professions Council or the Nursing and Midwifery Council is welcome to apply. Nurses, physiotherapists, radiographers, occupational therapists, paramedics and pharmacists are among those who would benefit from this course.

Timetable

Module dates

• 10 November 2026
• 17 November 2026
• 24 November 2026
• 1 December 2026
• 8 December 2026 (formative Viva).

Assignment dates and type:

• Viva: 11 January 2027 (onsite)
• Participation in forum: Across module teaching
• Viva resit: 2 February 2027 (onsite).

All dates are onsite.

Benefits

This module will prepare the healthcare practitioner to undertake complex clinical decision-making using multiple knowledge forms. You will gain a comprehensive understanding of the scale and the sources of error in healthcare and learn tools to mitigate their impact.

This short course module is designed to be flexible in allowing you to study and reach your goals at your own pace. Our health CPD courses are credit-bearing modules that may contribute to a University degree or award.

Transfer course credits towards postgraduate taught degree

As a health care professional, once you've completed this course you could offset 15 credits as part of a postgraduate programme, continuing your study with further modules to make up a Postgraduate Certificate (PGCert) 60 credits.

Upon completion of the course, you will be able to:

• Demonstrate an understanding of the scale, nature and causes of error in healthcare systems
• Demonstrate critical awareness of the effects of stress on clinical performance and the subsequent impact on patient safety
• Discern between functional and dysfunctional team behaviours and display a critical awareness of their contribution toward patient safety
• Demonstrate a critical understanding of frameworks, models and theories relating to clinical decision making and their application in clinical settings.

Teaching will be a combination of lectures, Problem Based Learning (PBL) and multi-professional perspective case scenarios and tutorials.

Critical reflection of clinical experiences

• Synchronous teaching will be a combination of face to face an online delivery (40 Hours)
• Self-directed learning (80 Hours)
• Assignment preparation (20 Hours).

Assessment

Assessment will take the form of:

• A 15 minute presentation, plus up to 10 minutes of questions
• Students will present a tool to assist with cognitive offloading suitable for their own clinical domain.

Credits

This course is worth 15 credits toward eligible programmes.

Apply for this course by completing this online form.

If applying for this module, you MUST state the Module Title and Course Code in the personal statement tab. Without this we will be unaware of what module you are applying for and will delay your application decision.

You must possess the following UK or international qualifications:

Students with UK qualifications

You should have all of the following:

• Honours degree (2:2 or above) from the UK or Republic of Ireland
• recognised healthcare/health-related professional qualification and current professional registration
• at least one years full-time clinical experience (or the equivalent in part-time hours) in health or social care employment (for example nursing, paramedics, physiotherapy, occupational therapy, pharmacy, radiology, etc).

Students with International qualifications

We accept equivalent qualifications gained in other countries. Please see our Entry Requirements page. For countries not on this list, we use UK ENIC to assess. Please see our International Student Support pages for more information.

If you have any questions, you can contact us at pec@sgul.ac.uk.

English requirements

If English is not your first language, you will require one of the following:

• A first degree from a UK university
• A first degree from an overseas institution recognised by City St George's, University of London as providing adequate evidence of proficiency in the English language, for example, from institutions from Australia, Canada or the United States of America
• International English Language Test Service (IELTS) a score of 7.0 is required with no subtest below 7.0
• Pearson Test of English (Academic) score 72 required
• TOEFL 100 overall with 24 in Writing, 20 in Listening, 19 Reading and 20 Speaking
• Other evidence of proficiency in the English language, which satisfies the board of studies concerned, including registration with your professional regulator.

Full details can be found on our English Language requirements webpage.