• myGriffith
    • Staff portal
    • Contact Us⌄
      • Future student enquiries 1800 677 728
      • Current student enquiries 1800 154 055
      • International enquiries +61 7 3735 6425
      • General enquiries 07 3735 7111
      • Online enquiries
      • Staff phonebook
    View Item 
    •   Home
    • Griffith Research Online
    • Journal articles
    • View Item
    • Home
    • Griffith Research Online
    • Journal articles
    • View Item
    JavaScript is disabled for your browser. Some features of this site may not work without it.

    Browse

  • All of Griffith Research Online
    • Communities & Collections
    • Authors
    • By Issue Date
    • Titles
  • This Collection
    • Authors
    • By Issue Date
    • Titles
  • Statistics

  • Most Popular Items
  • Statistics by Country
  • Most Popular Authors
  • Support

  • Contact us
  • FAQs
  • Admin login

  • Login
  • Doctors Are More Dangerous Than Gun Owners: A Rejoinder to Error Counting

    Author(s)
    Dekker, Sidney WA
    Griffith University Author(s)
    Dekker, Sidney
    Year published
    2007
    Metadata
    Show full item record
    Abstract
    Objective: This paper analyzes some of the problems with error counting as well as the difficulty of proposing viable alternatives. Background: Counting and tabulating negatives (e.g., errors) are currently popular ways to measure and help improve safety in a variety of domains. They uphold an illusion of rationality and control but may offer neither real insight nor productive routes for improving safety. Method: The paper conducts a critical analysis of assumptions underlying error counting in human factors. Results: Error counting is a form of structural analysis that focuses on (supposed) causes and consequences; ...
    View more >
    Objective: This paper analyzes some of the problems with error counting as well as the difficulty of proposing viable alternatives. Background: Counting and tabulating negatives (e.g., errors) are currently popular ways to measure and help improve safety in a variety of domains. They uphold an illusion of rationality and control but may offer neither real insight nor productive routes for improving safety. Method: The paper conducts a critical analysis of assumptions underlying error counting in human factors. Results: Error counting is a form of structural analysis that focuses on (supposed) causes and consequences; it defines risk and safety instrumentally in terms of minimizing negatives and their measurable effects. In this way, physicians can be proven to be 7500 times less safe than gun owners, as they are responsible for many more accidental deaths. Conclusion: The appeal of error counting may lie in a naive realism that can enchant researchers and practitioners alike. Supporting facts will continue to be found by those looking for errors through increasingly refined methods. Application: The paper outlines a different approach to understanding safety in complex systems that is more socially and politically oriented and that places emphasis on interpretation and social construction rather than on putatively objective structural features.
    View less >
    Journal Title
    Human Factors
    Volume
    49
    Issue
    2
    DOI
    https://doi.org/10.1518/001872007X312423
    Subject
    Cognitive and computational psychology
    Publication URI
    http://hdl.handle.net/10072/38860
    Collection
    • Journal articles

    Footer

    Disclaimer

    • Privacy policy
    • Copyright matters
    • CRICOS Provider - 00233E
    • TEQSA: PRV12076

    Tagline

    • Gold Coast
    • Logan
    • Brisbane - Queensland, Australia
    First Peoples of Australia
    • Aboriginal
    • Torres Strait Islander