Sue Markey

My name is Sue Markey and I am a nurse working as an Assistant Director of Nursing (ADON) for Sepsis and Deteriorating Patients across the Dublin and North East Region.

I am a member of the National Sepsis Team and work with ADON representing all regions across the country. There is a strong patient safety focus to the work I do every day linking in with equally passionate people working to improve patient safety in all hospitals in this region.

What were some human factors-related challenges you faced/observed as a Deteriorating Patient Lead?

In my role as Deteriorating Patient/Sepsis lead, understanding why staff don’t always escalate deterioration and follow protocol has been a challenge from the beginning. Staff face many challenges in the clinical environment and there are many variables that have an impact on the choices they make.

What made you want to embark on a qualification in Human Factors in Patient Safety?

I heard about the course from some of my colleagues working across the region and it was the first course that I felt could have a really positive effect on the work I do in helping to support staff to keep patients safe while also helping me to understand the complexities of healthcare systems.

What did you find most valuable or enjoyable about the course?

Working in a full-time role, the online programme really suited my hours and it gave me greater accessibility to attend. We had a mix of participants who had very similar experiences from both national and international healthcare settings and I think we learned a huge amount from each other. The group projects were a great way to challenge each other and collaborate. I learned a huge amount about myself and really pushed myself to learn as much as possible about the science of human factors and the impact it can have in the acute healthcare sector.

Can you describe any recent changes you have made in your practice that has improved patient safety after completing the Diploma/MSc?

The MSc programme is changing the way I look at escalation in the clinical area. If staff don’t escalate some of the time, then why do they escalate most of the time and human factors is helping me to change the narrative around this.

I carried out some research across two hospitals with the support from management and the staff to look at the barriers and enablers to escalation resulting in some interesting findings.

I have presented early findings at two conferences in the last few months: the Irish Human Factors and Ergonomics Society and the 4th RCSI Human Factors in Patient Safety Conference and submitted a poster for the Dublin and North East Nursing Research conference.

I am planning to present the findings to both hospitals and at regional level.