I am a vet, I studied a long time to get to call myself that, and what I do is complicated and cannot be put into a simple list. I struggled when I picked up this book as I was not sure what I would find from it as obviously checklists are for simple things.
Yet again and again Atul shows how checklists are used and adapted to every field from the start with the pilots through to restaurants, venture capitalists, skyscraper construction and medicine. Yet even when the few using the checklists show a massive gain whether in increasing profit or avoiding complications colleagues are not ready to adopt the method.
Back to myself, sure I can step into an operating room believing everything will go well, however mistakes do happen. Last week I got the wrong size gloves as I’d taken over the case from a colleague with smaller hands – small gloves cause lack of circulation which causes cramps. I was putting them on thinking they were tight when I spotted a 6 instead of a 7, and that was when I questioned it even though my brain was telling me something was different.
When looking at checklists with the WHO Atul visited the Boeing checklist team who are responsible for the pilot checklists to find out what makes a good checklist. It is in fact the shortness, and including things that will prevent crashes. They make it so that a pilots training is used in tandem with the checklist for everything that they are trained to do, and then for the checklist as a reminder of things that may be forgotten as they are so routine.
After reading The Checklist Manifesto I am going to walk into surgery tomorrow morning with a vet focused safety checklist, and I am going see what difference it makes to my outcomes.
