The Unexplored Link between Communication and Trust in Aviation Maintenance Practice

Learning from past in the aircraft maintenance industry: An empirical evaluation in the safety management framework

The growth of commercial air transport arguably translates into more aging passenger aircraft queuing up for major maintenance, modifications, and/or freighter conversion with the aircraft maintenance industry. In the competitive business environment, this increased maintenance demand possesses the potential to stress the industry and make safety vulnerable. In the aircraft maintenance industry, several aircraft accidents and incidents have resulted from organizational failure to learn from the past. To address this chronic problem, this study aims to (a) establish a learning process model for the aircraft maintenance industry, (b) identify the factors that influence learning, and (c) determine the effect of identified factors on learning from the past. A review of scholarly articles and regulatory publications enabled the development of learning from the past process model and a data collection tool, followed by structural equation modeling to quantify the relationship among influencing factors. The study was conducted in the Indian aircraft maintenance environment and is based on the perspective of the front-line maintenance staff. The study found that safety communication is the decisive stage for learning from the past. Contextualization of the safety information and evaluating the lessons learned during safety communication strongly impact learning from the past, for which existing regulatory provisions are vulnerable. The findings of this study are meant to assist State regulators and management of the aircraft maintenance industry; nevertheless, safety managers and practitioners in other ultra-safe, high-risk sectors may also apply the results in compliance with the respective regulatory guidelines.

The need for a nursing specific patient safety definition, a viewpoint paper

Purpose

This viewpoint article discusses and analyses the need and benefits of a patient safety definition within the context of nursing.

Design/methodology/approach

This viewpoint article is supported by literature review, statutory documents and expert knowledge evidence. All these sources provided a unified narrative of the background, current aspects and future needs of patient safety.

Findings

The need for strengthening patient safety and the nurses' role within healthcare's actions towards patient safety are discussed. The predominant role of nurses due to the proportionate size and significant role along with the need for clarification of patient safety in nursing terms is recognised. Research evidence of nursing areas with safety issues and relevant nursing interventions are presented. Based on all findings, a research-based nursing specific patient safety definition is proposed. This definition includes three axes: what is patient harm, how this harm can be eliminated or reduced and which are the areas of nursing practice that are identified to provide opportunity for patient harm. These axes include nursing specifications of the patient safety definition.

Originality/value

It is the first time that a nurse specific patient safety definition is proposed. This definition strives to enhance nurse practitioners' understanding and engagement with patient safety by clarifying aspects of patient safety within everyday nursing practice.

An evaluative study of public property maintenance practices in a tertiary institution in Ghana

Purpose

The purpose of the study is to evaluate key factors considered in the maintenance and management of property and facilities in a public tertiary institution in Ghana, taking reflective cognizance of the poor maintenance culture in the country.

Design/methodology/approach

The cross-sectional design was adopted, employing both structured and semi-structured interview questionnaires for quantitative and qualitative interview data, respectively from multiple individuals in the Koforidua Technical University. The Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) tool was deployed to analyze the quantitative data, while the focus group interview was recorded, transcribed and thematically analyzed.

Findings

The paper reveals the need for a working policy and strategy for the maintenance of public property to ensure sustainability of practices. Essential factors such as effective communication flow and the competence of the maintenance team were highly ranked in the maintenance of public property. The use of computerized systems and other technological tools in maintenance practice featured low, and this calls for improvement in the delivery of maintenance services. Another critical finding was the need for effective engagement of all stakeholders in the planning and development of strategies to improve property maintenance.

Practical implications

The findings have practical implications for practitioners and society at large. Notably, they enjoin public sector institutions to embrace policy-driven public property management and maintenance, strategic outlooks for public property maintenance, technological advancement in property management and effective engagement of all stakeholders in property maintenance delivery.

Originality/value

This paper reviews a collection of maintenance practices and moves further to evaluate them using a case study of a public institution to draw useful outcomes. It offers new knowledge pursued to fill a revealed gap in the literature.

Analysis of Continuing Airworthiness Occurrences under the Prism of a Learning Framework

In this research paper fifteen mandatory occurrence reports are analysed. The purpose of this is to highlight the learning potential incidents such as these may possess for organisations involved in aircraft maintenance and continuing airworthiness management activities. The outputs from the mandatory occurrence reports are aligned in tabular form for ease of inclusion in human factors’ continuation training material. A new incident learning archetype is also introduced, which intends to represent how reported incidents can be managed and translated into lessons in support of preventing event recurrence. This ‘learning product’ centric model visually articulates activities such as capturing the reported information, establishing causation and the iterative nature of developing a learning product.