Latent safety threats are system-based threats to patient safety that can materialise at any time and are previously unrecognised by healthcare providers, unit directors or hospital administration. By highlighting latent threats to others can help make system wide changes and improve patient safety.
There is evidence that regular simulation sessions for acute cases including human factors training improves safety critical behaviours and more crucially, patient outcomes. In situ simulation has been described as ‘crash testing the dummy’.More formally, In situ simulation is a team based training technique conducted in actual patient care units using equipment and resources from that unit and involving actual members of the healthcare team. While simulation has often been used as a strategy to train individuals in both technical and non technical skills, in situ simulation can be used to evaluate system competence and identify latent safety threats that predispose to medical error.
