Presentation
CANCELED - A Leadership-Centered Human Factors Model to Reduce Cognitive Load and Burnout in Healthcare
SessionHE6: Innovations in Methods
DescriptionClinician burnout and cognitive overload threaten safety, quality, and workforce sustainability. Human factors and ergonomics (HFE) provide well-established methods to redesign work, yet adoption across healthcare remains uneven and often ad hoc. Hospital leaders are a critical missing accelerant: when they understand core HFE principles and collaborate with HFE professionals, organizations can reduce cognitive load in systematic and measurable ways.
Burnout is a rapidly escalating public health problem with severe consequences for clinicians, patients, and health systems worldwide. It develops from chronic workplace stress, producing depletion, exhaustion, detachment, diminished efficiency, and, in extreme cases, workforce departure and suicide. Most occupational stressors are systemic, with clinicians constantly adapting to unnecessarily complex information systems, cumbersome workflows, poorly designed devices, high physical and cognitive workloads, demanding patient volumes, and moral distress.
HFE offers a powerful set of approaches to address these conditions by guiding procurement of technology, the redesign of processes and work systems, staff training, and elimination of unnecessary tasks, leading to better clinical care and reduced burnout. Yet the application of this expertise remains inconsistent, the benefits often under-recognized, and the business case difficult to sustain without explicit regulatory or leadership support. Because leaders influence culture, resource allocation, and workflow implementation, they are uniquely positioned to mitigate the systemic conditions that drive burnout. Basic literacy in HFE science provides a strategic advantage for leaders tasked with achieving high-quality care, controlling costs, and improving both patient and clinician experiences. Despite this, HFE competence is largely absent from current leadership training.
Recognition of burnout as a systemic problem underscores the value of sociotechnical and systems-engineering perspectives. Interventions that neglect frontline engagement rarely produce sustainable improvements; by contrast, human-centered design and usability assessment can ensure devices and processes support clinical performance under high workload without increasing risk of error. Feedback loops between clinicians, patients, and leadership can surface emerging risks and precursors to burnout. Measures such as the NASA Task Load Index (TLX) demonstrate strong associations between cognitive workload and burnout across specialties, independent of demographic or practice characteristics. Organizational interventions, when combined with individual supports, can significantly reduce burnout, enhance well-being, and improve care quality.
This presentation introduces a pragmatic, leadership-centered model for embedding HFE in clinical operations. We will illustrate how hospital leaders have begun to (1) recognize the importance of these, and other, aspects of HFE, to reduce workload burnout, and improve efficiency and safety, (2) promote HFE to their colleagues across their organizations, and (3) grow collaborations with HFE experts that can lead to a greater application of these principles. We synthesize cognitive load theory and macroergonomics to identify where leaders exert the most leverage—governance, prioritization, resource allocation, and culture. We propose a maturity pathway, from ad hoc projects to embedded learning systems, mapping leadership behaviors at each stage, including defining hazard-aligned problem statements, commissioning co-design with frontline teams, and instituting simple measurement plans. Drawing on multi-institutional experience, we illustrate applications such as simplifying decision support, streamlining inboxes and handoffs, and creating cognitive and physical scaffolds for clinical teams. These interventions consistently reduce task switching and interruptions, improve signal-to-noise in clinical information, decrease workarounds, and generate early improvements in safety and well-being.
Attendees will leave with a practical playbook: a one-page checklist for executives and service-line leaders, a partnership template clarifying roles among leaders, HFE professionals, clinicians, and IT, and a minimal measurement set (workload assessments, defect and interruption counts, adoption and equity checks). We conclude with a call to action: embed HFE competence as a core leadership skill and integrate HFE expertise into organizational structures to create safer systems and a sustainable clinical workforce.
References
1. Farley HL, Harry EM; Sinsky CA, Boehm EW, Privitera MR, and Melnick ER. Humans as an Essential Source of Safety: A Frameshift for System Resilience Mayo Clin Proc Inn Qual Out August 2023;7(4):241-243 n https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mayocpiqo.2023.05.001 241-243
2. Harry, E., Sinsky, C., et al. (2021) Physician Task Load and Risk of Burnout among US Physicians in a National Survey. The Joint Commission Journal of Patient Safety, 47, 76-85.https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcjq.2020.09.011
3. Privitera, M.R. (2020) Human Factors/Ergonomics (HFE) in Leadership and Management: Organizational Interventions to Reduce Stress in Healthcare Delivery. Health, 12, 1262-1278. https://doi.org/10.4236/health.2020.129091
4. MacNamee K Analysis: A Neurocognitive Approach to Developing Safer Medical Devices. Biomed Instrum Technol. 2020 54(1) 28-36
5. Pasmore, W.A., 1988. Designing Effective Organizations: The Sociotechnical Systems Perspective.Wiley, New York.
6. Privitera, M.R. (2022) Promoting Clinician Well-Being and Patient Safety Using Human Factors Science: Reducing Unnecessary Occupational Stress. Health, 14, 1334-1356. https://doi.org/10.4236/health.2022.1412095e
7. Catchpole K, Jeffcott S Ch 13, Human Factors and Ergonomics Practice in Healthcare. Challenges and Opportunities. In Human Factors and Ergonomics in Practice. CRC Press, Boca Raton Fl 2017.
8. Sujan M, Pickup L, Vosper H, Catchpole K 2025. Human Factors and Ergonomics in Health and Social Care. Chartered Institute of Ergonomics and Human Factors. Class Professional Publishing. Bridgwater UK.
Burnout is a rapidly escalating public health problem with severe consequences for clinicians, patients, and health systems worldwide. It develops from chronic workplace stress, producing depletion, exhaustion, detachment, diminished efficiency, and, in extreme cases, workforce departure and suicide. Most occupational stressors are systemic, with clinicians constantly adapting to unnecessarily complex information systems, cumbersome workflows, poorly designed devices, high physical and cognitive workloads, demanding patient volumes, and moral distress.
HFE offers a powerful set of approaches to address these conditions by guiding procurement of technology, the redesign of processes and work systems, staff training, and elimination of unnecessary tasks, leading to better clinical care and reduced burnout. Yet the application of this expertise remains inconsistent, the benefits often under-recognized, and the business case difficult to sustain without explicit regulatory or leadership support. Because leaders influence culture, resource allocation, and workflow implementation, they are uniquely positioned to mitigate the systemic conditions that drive burnout. Basic literacy in HFE science provides a strategic advantage for leaders tasked with achieving high-quality care, controlling costs, and improving both patient and clinician experiences. Despite this, HFE competence is largely absent from current leadership training.
Recognition of burnout as a systemic problem underscores the value of sociotechnical and systems-engineering perspectives. Interventions that neglect frontline engagement rarely produce sustainable improvements; by contrast, human-centered design and usability assessment can ensure devices and processes support clinical performance under high workload without increasing risk of error. Feedback loops between clinicians, patients, and leadership can surface emerging risks and precursors to burnout. Measures such as the NASA Task Load Index (TLX) demonstrate strong associations between cognitive workload and burnout across specialties, independent of demographic or practice characteristics. Organizational interventions, when combined with individual supports, can significantly reduce burnout, enhance well-being, and improve care quality.
This presentation introduces a pragmatic, leadership-centered model for embedding HFE in clinical operations. We will illustrate how hospital leaders have begun to (1) recognize the importance of these, and other, aspects of HFE, to reduce workload burnout, and improve efficiency and safety, (2) promote HFE to their colleagues across their organizations, and (3) grow collaborations with HFE experts that can lead to a greater application of these principles. We synthesize cognitive load theory and macroergonomics to identify where leaders exert the most leverage—governance, prioritization, resource allocation, and culture. We propose a maturity pathway, from ad hoc projects to embedded learning systems, mapping leadership behaviors at each stage, including defining hazard-aligned problem statements, commissioning co-design with frontline teams, and instituting simple measurement plans. Drawing on multi-institutional experience, we illustrate applications such as simplifying decision support, streamlining inboxes and handoffs, and creating cognitive and physical scaffolds for clinical teams. These interventions consistently reduce task switching and interruptions, improve signal-to-noise in clinical information, decrease workarounds, and generate early improvements in safety and well-being.
Attendees will leave with a practical playbook: a one-page checklist for executives and service-line leaders, a partnership template clarifying roles among leaders, HFE professionals, clinicians, and IT, and a minimal measurement set (workload assessments, defect and interruption counts, adoption and equity checks). We conclude with a call to action: embed HFE competence as a core leadership skill and integrate HFE expertise into organizational structures to create safer systems and a sustainable clinical workforce.
References
1. Farley HL, Harry EM; Sinsky CA, Boehm EW, Privitera MR, and Melnick ER. Humans as an Essential Source of Safety: A Frameshift for System Resilience Mayo Clin Proc Inn Qual Out August 2023;7(4):241-243 n https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mayocpiqo.2023.05.001 241-243
2. Harry, E., Sinsky, C., et al. (2021) Physician Task Load and Risk of Burnout among US Physicians in a National Survey. The Joint Commission Journal of Patient Safety, 47, 76-85.https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcjq.2020.09.011
3. Privitera, M.R. (2020) Human Factors/Ergonomics (HFE) in Leadership and Management: Organizational Interventions to Reduce Stress in Healthcare Delivery. Health, 12, 1262-1278. https://doi.org/10.4236/health.2020.129091
4. MacNamee K Analysis: A Neurocognitive Approach to Developing Safer Medical Devices. Biomed Instrum Technol. 2020 54(1) 28-36
5. Pasmore, W.A., 1988. Designing Effective Organizations: The Sociotechnical Systems Perspective.Wiley, New York.
6. Privitera, M.R. (2022) Promoting Clinician Well-Being and Patient Safety Using Human Factors Science: Reducing Unnecessary Occupational Stress. Health, 14, 1334-1356. https://doi.org/10.4236/health.2022.1412095e
7. Catchpole K, Jeffcott S Ch 13, Human Factors and Ergonomics Practice in Healthcare. Challenges and Opportunities. In Human Factors and Ergonomics in Practice. CRC Press, Boca Raton Fl 2017.
8. Sujan M, Pickup L, Vosper H, Catchpole K 2025. Human Factors and Ergonomics in Health and Social Care. Chartered Institute of Ergonomics and Human Factors. Class Professional Publishing. Bridgwater UK.
Event Type
Oral Presentations
TimeTuesday, March 242:15pm - 2:37pm EDT
LocationMurray Hill West
Hospital Environments