Recent developments of research and application of Human Factors and Ergonomics (HFE) are described, in particular the domain of healthcare delivery. HFE activities in this domain are highlighted and challenges for the discipline and the International Ergonomics Association are presented.

background: the aim of this study was to evaluate the relation of intensity of low back discomfort with two factors that contribute to low back pain -ergonomics risk factors and psychosocial factors- most seen in emergency unit nurses. methods: this cross-sectional survey was conducted on 120 emergency unit nurses in isfehan. for daily assessment of psychosocial and ergonomics factors and inten...

Ergonomics is often written about and many dental professionals think they are practicing the concepts of ergonomics in their daily office activities. However, ergonomics the science that studies the relationship between people and their work environment often falls short when a dental staff chooses equipment for the dental treatment room to practice true four-handed dentistry. Thus, it behoove...

This paper analyses two proposals that seek to contribute to sustainability from an HFE perspective: ergoecology and green ergonomics. It presents both approaches, their principles, purposes, and fields of application, thereafter dealing with their context of emergence, and overlaps in purpose, principles, and shared values. The principles of ergoecology are given as a framework for developing ...

Although the past 25 years have seen many apparently new challenges for the academic discipline and the professional practice of ergonomics/human factors, and for the International Ergonomics Association, many issues in fact have recurred over the period. This paper takes the relevant decades and de3scribes the internal and external priorities of the IEA at the time, the main developments for r...

OBJECTIVE To evaluate the effect of ergonomics training on non-ergonomists' ability to recognize and characterize the potential for musculoskeletal harm in manufacturing tasks. METHODS Ergonomics training was delivered to members of a participatory ergonomics team in a manufacturing facility. Before and after training, participatory ergonomics team members and the research team rated the pote...

This paper describes and generalises experiences from two cases of production system development in the Swedish context. We have observed the successful application of ergonomics to be related to the lack of coordination of human factors across groups responsible for different stages of the production system design process. This problem is magnified by the tendency for ‘ergonomics’ to be the re...

Process improvement initiatives are receiving renewed attention by large corporations as they attempt to reduce manufacturing costs and stay competitive in the global marketplace. These initiatives include 5S, Six Sigma, and Lean. These programs often take up a large amount of available time and budget resources. More often than not, existing ergonomics processes are considered separate initiat...

Recently, ergonomics has become a popular term. The term has been used with most professions, but increasingly in the dental profession. When you hear ergonomics, many meanings may come to mind. According to Pollack (1989), ergonomics is a discipline that studies workers and their relationship to their occupational environment. This could include many different concepts such as how we position ...

BACKGROUND Both low back pain (LBP) and neck pain (NP) are major occupational health problems. In the workplace, participatory ergonomics (PE) is frequently used on musculoskeletal disorders. However, evidence on the effectiveness of PE to prevent LBP and NP obtained from randomised controlled trials (RCTs) is scarce. This study evaluates the process of the Stay@Work participatory ergonomics pr...