Author Archives: Rich Gasaway
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Confirmation Bias Impacts Situational Awareness
The foundation of situational awareness is capturing clues and cues in your environment – what some would call “paying attention” - and then making sense of those clues and cues – what some would call “understanding” – and then making projections … Continue reading
Posted in Crew Resource Management, Decision Making, firefighter situational awareness, human factors, Safety, Situational awareness, size-up
Tagged cognitive bias, confirmation bias, decision making under stress, firefighter rescue, firefighter safety, firefighter situational awareness, flashover, flawed situational awareness, incident command, information management, situational awareness
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Radio Traffic Can Improve or Destroy Situational Awareness
When it comes to first responder radio traffic I am reminded of the tale of Goldilocks and the Three Bears. You may recall that in the story Goldilocks samples three bowls of porridge. One is too hot. One is too … Continue reading
Posted in Attention Management, Auditory exclusion, Communications, Complacency, Decision Making, Distractions and Interruptions, Emotions, Fear, firefighter situational awareness, human factors, Information overload, Neuroscience, Safety, Situational awareness, Stress, Training, Tunneled Senses
Tagged decision making, dispatch, emergency management, EMT, fire, fire command, fire command training, fire training, firefighter safety, firefighter situational awareness, fireground command, fireground command decision making, fireground commander, fireground safety, haz-mat, hazardous materials, officer safety, paramedic, patient care, police officer safety, public safety, radio communications, rescue, responder safety, safety, Situational awareness matters, tactical decision making, technical rescue
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Station Alerting Noise Can Impact Situational Awareness
Noise can erode situational awareness in many ways. Loud noises, soft noises, lots of noise, odd noises, familiar noises, annoying noises… all noise can present challenges. In this article, I want to explore some of the challenges first responders face … Continue reading
Posted in Auditory exclusion, Emotions, Fear, Human Behavior, human factors, Safety, Situational awareness, Technology, Tunneled Senses
Tagged decision making, firefighter situational awareness, fireground command, mental models, noise, sense making, situational awareness, station alerting systems
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Bravado: A Barrier to Situational Awareness
I recently sent out a message across my social media networks (Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn) about bravado being a barrier to situational awareness. The message, in case you missed it, read: Bravado: The purposeful ignorance of critical signs of danger … Continue reading
Posted in Accountability, Crew Resource Management, Culture, Decision Making, Ego and Self-Esteem, Emotions, Fear, firefighter situational awareness, Human Behavior, human factors, Safety, Situational awareness, Situational Readiness, Teamwork, Training
Tagged bravado, bravery, decision making, decision making under stress, dispatch, emergency management, EMT, fire, fire command, fire command training, fire training, firefighter safety, firefighter situational awareness, fireground command, fireground command decision making, fireground commander, fireground safety, haz-mat, hazardous materials, line of duty death, officer safety, paramedic, patient care, police officer safety, public safety, rescue, responder safety, risk management, safety, situational awareness, Situational awareness matters, tactical decision making, technical rescue
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Situational Awareness: Think Past, Present & Future
Flawed situational awareness (SA) is one of the leading contributing factors to first responder near-miss and casualty events. In fact, it is nearly impossible to find a line-of-duty death investigation report that does not implicate flawed SA, or one of … Continue reading
Using the simulation environment to improve situational awareness
Many first responder training programs use simulation in the development of decision making competencies. Simulation exercises help develop skills in setting strategy and tactics, in applying policies and procedures and in developing critical thinking skills. But how can simulations be … Continue reading
Posted in Communications, Crew Resource Management, Decision Making, Human Behavior, human factors, Information overload, Mental Models, Neuroscience, Safety, Simulation, Situational awareness, Stress, Technology, Training, Workload Management
Tagged decision making, decision making under stress, fire service leadership, firefighter safety, firefighter situational awareness, high reliability organizations, leadership, mental models, mindfulness, problem solving, resiliency, resilient problem solving, safety, sense making, Simulation, situational awareness, Situational awareness matters, staffing, teamwork, training
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Firefighting: It’s a whole new ballgame
There is little doubt the recent recession has had a significant impact on the nation’s fire service. Hardly a day goes by where there’s not some news about an organization that had downsized, rightsized or capsized. There are all kinds … Continue reading
Posted in Accountability, Complacency, Crew Resource Management, Culture, Decision Making, Emotions, Fear, Human Behavior, Leadership, Mayday and RIT, Personnel location, Risk Assessment, Safety, Situational awareness, Situational Readiness, Staffing, Standard Operating Procedures/Guidelines, Stress, Teamwork, Training, Workload Management
Tagged decision making, decision making under stress, fire service leadership, firefighter safety, firefighter situational awareness, high reliability organizations, leadership, organizational culture, problem solving, resiliency, resilient problem solving, safety, situational awareness, staffing, teamwork, training
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