Checklist
A checklist is a type of informational job aid used to reduce failure by compensating for potential limits of human memory and attention. It helps to ensure consistency and completeness in carrying out a task. A basic example is the "to do list." A more advanced checklist would be a schedule, which lays out tasks to be done according to time of day or other factors. A primary task in checklist is documentation of the task and auditing against the documentation.
Applications
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- pre-flight checklists aid in aviation safety to ensure that critical items are not forgotten
- use in medical practice to ensure that clinical practice guidelines are followed. An example is the Surgical Safety Checklist developed for the World Health Organization by Dr. Atul Gawande.[1] Evidence to support surgical checklists is tentative but limited.[2]
- used in quality assurance of software engineering, to check process compliance, code standardization and error prevention, and others.
- often used in industry in operations procedures.
- used in civil litigation to deal with the complexity of discovery and motions practice. An example is the open-source litigation checklist.
- used by some investors as a critical part of their investment process
- can aid in mitigating claims of negligence in public liability claims by providing evidence of a risk management system being in place.
- an ornithological checklist, a list of birds with standardized names that helps ornithologists communicate with the public without the use of scientific names in Latin.
- a popular tool for tracking sports card collections. Randomly inserted in packs, checklist cards provide information on the contents of sports card set.
Format
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Checklists are often presented as lists with small checkboxes down the left hand side of the page. A small tick or checkmark is drawn in the box after the item has been completed.
Other formats are also sometimes used. Aviation checklists generally consist of a system and an action divided by a dashed line, and lack a checkbox as they are often read aloud and are usually intended to be reused.
Concern
Excessive dependence of checklists may hinder performance when dealing with a time-critical situation, for example a medical emergency or an in-flight emergency. Checklists should not be used as a replacement for common sense. Intensive training including rote-learning of checklists can help integrate use of checklists with more adaptive and flexible problem solving techniques.
See also
References
- ↑ Haynes A; Gawande A (January 2009). "A surgical safety checklist to reduce morbidity and mortality in a global population.". New England Journal of Medicine. 360 (5): 491–499. doi:10.1056/NEJMsa0810119. PMID 19144931.
- ↑ Bergs, J; Hellings, J; Cleemput, I; Zurel, Ö; De Troyer, V; Van Hiel, M; Demeere, JL; Claeys, D; Vandijck, D (Feb 2014). "Systematic review and meta-analysis of the effect of the World Health Organization surgical safety checklist on postoperative complications.". The British journal of surgery. 101 (3): 150–8. doi:10.1002/bjs.9381. PMID 24469615.
External links
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Look up checklist in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. |
- Checklist examples- a database of thousands of checklists where one can see more examples
- How the Pilot's Checklist Came About