{"id":5364,"date":"2019-12-20T20:53:37","date_gmt":"2019-12-21T00:53:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?p=5364"},"modified":"2022-03-17T15:29:10","modified_gmt":"2022-03-17T19:29:10","slug":"advantages-of-checklists","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/advantages-of-checklists\/","title":{"rendered":"The 2 Greatest Advantages of Checklists, for Work and Life"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

What are the advantages of checklists? How can they make you more efficient and less liable to make careless mistakes at work<\/a> and at home?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We’ll cover the benefits it checklists and look at examples of the advantages of checklists in the worlds of aviation<\/a> and medicine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

The <\/strong>Advantages of Checklists <\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

In complex environments, checklists can help to prevent failure by addressing two problems:
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Advantage of Checklists #1<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

1) Our memory and our attention to detail<\/a> fail when we\u2019re distracted by more urgent matters<\/strong>. For instance, if you\u2019re a nurse, you might forget to take a patient\u2019s pulse when she\u2019s throwing up, a family member is asking questions, and you\u2019re being paged.
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Forgetfulness and distraction are especially risky in what engineers call all-or-none processes, where if you miss one key thing, you fail at the task. For instance, if you go to the store to buy ingredients for a cake and forget to buy eggs, you can\u2019t make the recipe because it wouldn\u2019t work without eggs. The consequences are more serious if a pilot misses a step during take-off or a doctor misses the key symptom. Regardless of the situation, aiding your memory is an advantage of checklists.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Advantage of Checklists #2<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

2)<\/strong> People have a tendency to skip steps even when they remember them<\/strong>. In complex processes, certain steps don\u2019t always matter, so people may play the odds and skip them. For instance, if measuring all four of a patient\u2019s vital signs (pulse, blood pressure, temperature, and respiration) only rarely detects a problem, you might become lax about checking everything.
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Checklists protect against such failures because they remind you of the minimum necessary steps<\/strong> by spelling them out. They allow you to verify each step while also establishing and instilling a performance standard. This is another benefit of checklists.
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Boeing Discovers the Benefits of Checklists<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Let’s look at an example of how to apply the advantages of checklists in the professional world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 1935, the Army Air Corps asked airplane manufacturers for a new long-range bomber. Boeing\u2019s Model 299, which exceeded specifications, was favored over models by Martin and Douglas. However, during a flight competition held by the Army in Dayton, Ohio, the Boeing model stalled at 300 feet and crashed, killing two of five crew members.
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The plane was much more complicated than previous aircraft \u2014 the pilot had more steps to follow and forgot to release a new locking mechanism on the elevator and rudder controls. After the accident, a newspaper called the new model \u201ctoo much airplane for one man to fly.\u201d  The Army Air Corps chose Douglas\u2019s smaller design, and Boeing took a big financial hit.
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Nonetheless, the Army bought a few Model 299s as test planes and a group of test pilots studied how to prevent future pilot errors. Instead of focusing on requiring longer training, they came up with a pilot\u2019s checklist. Flying up to that point had not been especially complicated, but flying the new plane required too many details to be left to memory.
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The test pilots made their checklist simple, clear, and concise \u2014 it fit on an index card \u2014 with step-by-step checks for takeoff, landing, and taxiing. Using the checklist, pilots went on to fly the bomber, which became the B-17 Flying Fortress, 1.8 million miles without incident. The Army ordered 13,000, and the bomber gave the allies a big air advantage in World War II.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Checklists have become essential in aviation, averting problems and accidents. In notebook and electronic forms, they\u2019re a standard and crucial part of pilot training and aircraft operation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These are some of the uses and advantages of checklists.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Medicine: The Advantages of Checklists<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

In medicine, the four vital signs (pulse, blood pressure, temperature, and respiration) have become an important regular check on how a patient is doing. Missing one can be dangerous.
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Medical practitioners didn\u2019t consistently measure and record the four vital signs until the 1960s, when nurses in Western hospitals designed patient charts that included them. Checking them off on a chart was a way of ensuring that in a busy and demanding environment, they wouldn\u2019t forget to make the checks every six hours. Hospitals have since added a fifth vital sign, the patient\u2019s pain level on a scale of one to ten.
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In 2001, a critical care specialist at Johns Hopkins Hospital, Peter Pronovost, decided to try a checklist for doctors, targeting a common problem in ICUs: central line infections. A central line is a type of catheter placed in a large vein that allows multiple IV fluids to be given and blood to be drawn. Pronovost\u2019s checklist listed the steps for avoiding infections:  <\/p>\n\n\n\n