Dr Jonathan Benn

Profile

Jonathan Benn is Associate Professor in Healthcare Quality and Safety at the School of Psychology, University of Leeds and theme lead for Digital Innovation in the NIHR Yorkshire and Humber Patient Safety Translational Research Centre.  Jonathan has worked in health services research since 2005, applying knowledge and theory from behavioural and social sciences to address applied topics in health care delivery and the design of clinical work systems.  He completed his undergraduate degree in Psychology, followed by a PhD in Human Factors in Systems Engineering and prior to taking up his post at Leeds in 2018, was Lecturer in Quality Improvement in Healthcare in the Department of Surgery and Cancer at Imperial College. Jonathan has received funding as Principal Investigator from NIHR HS&DR; NIHR CLAHRC and The Health Foundation. He has extensive experience as an educator in improvement and implementation science topics and is an Academic Advisor to the board of the YHAHSN Improvement Academy based at the Bradford Institute for Health Research.  Jonathan works closely with researchers in the NIHR Yorkshire and Humber Patient Safety Translational Research Centre, in areas including Safe Use of Medicines, Digital Innovation and Workforce Engagement and Wellbeing.

Responsibilities

• Theme Lead for Digital Innovation (NIHR Patient Safety Translational Research Centre)
• Module Lead for Work Psychology
• Module Lead for Advanced Research Issues in Psychology

Research interests

Jonathan is particularly interested in applications of organisational psychology and human factors in a health service context, with an emphasis on patient safety. He has conducted research in a range of service areas, including: perioperative care, medication safety, ambulance services, hospital risk management and organisational-level interventions to improve patient safety.  Specific research interests include:

• Evaluation of digital innovations for patient safety from a sociotechnical perspective
• The effects of audit and feedback interventions on organisational and professional behaviour
• Work-related wellbeing in ambulance service staff
• Evaluation of complex interventions in health services, including safe use of medicines
• System resilience and high reliability organisations
• Factors governing implementation of evidence-based practice to reduce potentially harmful variations in care
• Application of quality improvement methods in healthcare, including secondary use of data
• Mixed methods research design

Qualifications

• PhD Human Factors in Systems Engineering
• MEd University Teaching and Learning
• BSc Psychology

Professional memberships

• Academic Advisor YHAHSN Improvement Academy

Student education

Jonathan teaches and supervises student projects on a wide range of applied psychology topics linked to human factors and behaviour in the workplace, at the level of individuals, teams and organisations.  In addition, he teaches in areas related to the development of practical research skills and knowledge concerning the application of social and behavioural research methods in these settings.

Research groups and institutes

• Health and social psychology