Association for Behavior Analysis International

In 2014 an Italian National Cancer Institute decided to apply a BBS process in an area of the surgery department because of its higher severity index (2011-2012) [cfr “The First Italian Research On The Efficacy of a B-BS Process in Healthcare Sector” (2015) Tosolin, F. et alii. 41st ABAI Annual Conference - San Antonio, May 24th 2015”]. The staff is committed in measuring behaviors in operating rooms, and providing the consequent feedback. This has allowed reaching a level of safe behaviors between 85% and 100%. Now, 2 years after the introduction of the behavioral process, the impacts on safety indices have been measured in terms of frequency and severity of accidents. On an average of 2,500 checklists compiled per year, with more than 2,000 feedbacks since 2014, the BBS protocol has been taking these results only in this area of the surgery department: - A reduction of accident frequency rate from 7.1 of 2013 to 0 at 2015; - A reduction of accident severity rate from 2.8 of 2013 to 0.1 at 2015. The reduction took indices at an even lower rate than other areas and departments (Intensive Care and High Doses, Ambulatory Surgery plate, Gastroenterology and all areas of Medical Oncology). Because of these results, in late 2016 the Institute decided to extend the BBS application to other departments. In late 2017 the researchers will likely show data relating different departments that started BBS process at different moments: the present case study will change into a multiple baseline design experiment. The aim of this project is to demonstrate the efficacy of ABA in healthcare, indeed to extend the ABA practices adoption in non-psychological fields. This speech will also be the chance to present the work done and the strategies used.

Training is often the initial solution identified by managers or supervisors to "fix" performance problems in the workplace; however, there are situations in which training will not produce the desired outcome. Using behavioral systems analysis (BSA) to better understand how the training department interacts with the rest of the organizational system may lead to better and more appropriate use and evaluation of training in the workplace. BSA highlights vital internal and external feedback loops that can provide trainers with information about the necessity of trained behaviors, along with how well these behaviors are supported within the working environment. The identification of performance discrepancies and why discrepancies exist due to skill deficiency or lack of consequences will be covered as a critical first step to determine whether training versus another intervention is necessary. The importance of different types of feedback for both trainers and employees will be discussed in relation to maintaining training outcomes, along with other methods for supporting employee performance and wellbeing in order to promote employee engagement and retention.