Safety in Hospitals, Safety in Aviation: Tomato, Potato

Written by Grace Hoober

My professional life has been centered around safety. Before software engineering, I was an ER nurse and, I know, these seem like completely different careers. Like a tomato and a potato, they do not have much in common. But safety is the fundamental similarity between nursing and aviation software engineering, and once I saw it, I couldn't unsee it.

Early in my nursing career I was introduced to the "Swiss cheese model" of safety. The idea is that disasters don't happen from a single failure, but from multiple small gaps lining up at the same time, like holes lining up between multiple slices of swiss cheese. Protocols and procedures exist to prevent errors from slipping through those aligned holes. I later found out this model was borrowed directly from aviation, and the parallels kept coming from there.

Recently I had the chance to observe a VTI flight collecting data for landing, taxi, and takeoff operations in Bozeman. This was entirely new to me. Sure, I've flown commercial but I had no idea what actually happens in the cockpit. Watching the crew work, it felt familiar. The procedural communication with the tower, the step by step framework for each phase of flight, the consistent metrics checked at every stage. It reminded me of managing a stroke patient or running a trauma. There is a protocol of care that is followed precisely because consistency is what keeps people safe, whether that is at 10,000 feet or in an ER bay.

So how does that safety culture seep into software engineering? I have found it lives in the mental model. I use the same pathways I relied on as a nurse every day writing code. I pay close attention to detail, I follow standards and do my best to follow best practices. I think about the downstream effects of what I am pushing today. I weigh risk against time and balance what I can complete now with what will set my team up for success later. VTI has reinforced that instinct. Taking a few extra minutes to think holistically about a daily PR, a yearly project, or our ultimate goal of making landing, taxi, and takeoff safer is not extra. It is the job.

So while ER nursing and aviation software might seem like opposites, it really is comparing potato to tomato. They grow in the same soil, and that soil is a culture of safety.