Resilient Health Care: Muddling Through with Purpose

This book promotes an understanding of the purposeful muddling that health care workers rely on to be better able to function and operate in the multitude of complex ecosystems we call "health care."

The book argues the case for the importance of recognising and understanding muddling behaviours, practices and activities in order to create resilient care. The book demonstrates how resilient health care principles can enable managers as well as those on the frontlines to work more effectively towards interdisciplinary care by gaining a deeper understanding of real-world practices that manifest in everyday clinical settings. This is done by presenting a set of case studies, theoretical chapters and applications that relate experiences, bring forth ideas and illustrate practical solutions.

Primarily aimed at people who are directly involved in the running and improvement of health care systems, it provides practical guidance. It is also of direct interest to health care professionals in clinical and managerial positions as well as researchers.

Jeffrey Braithwaite is Founding Director of the Australian Institute of Health Innovation, Professor of Health Systems Research and Director of the Centre for Healthcare Resilience and Implementation Science, Macquarie University (Australia). His research examines the changing nature of complex health systems and he has received over 50 different national and international awards for his teaching and research.

Erik Hollnagel is Senior Professor of Patient Safety at Jِnkِping University (Sweden). He is a highly regarded international expert with significant contributions to a variety of fields ranging from nuclear power generation, aerospace and aviation to industry, transportation and, most notably, health care.

Garthe Hunte is a Clinical Professor and Emergency Physician holding multiple academic and clinical leadership appointments across Canada. His research programme centres around how safety is created in complex socio-technical systems, and in the application of resilience engineering in health care.