Category Archives: Situational awareness
Tacit knowledge and situational awareness
While conducting research on how decisions are made during high consequence events I came across a term I’d never heard before – “tacit knowledge.” Once I learned what it was it quickly became evident that I possessed it… and I … Continue reading
Posted in Attention Management, Competency, Decision Making, human factors, Neuroscience, Repetition, Safety, Situational awareness, Tacit knowledge
Tagged awareness, decision making, expert knowledge, expertise, firefighter situational awareness, fireground command, learning, magic knowledge, mental models, novice, public safety, sense making, situational awareness, tacit knowledge
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Situational Awareness: Catastrophically Important to First Responder Safety
This video serves as an example of the importance of situational awareness. Please do not judge this department, the responders, or the commander. Rather, seek to learn and understand WHY… the things they were doing at the moment in time … Continue reading
Posted in Decision Making, firefighter situational awareness, Safety, Situational awareness
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, rescue, responder safety, safety, Situational awareness matters, tactical decision making, technical rescue
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Staffing Levels Impact Situational Awareness
Research has demonstrated that, without question, stress can have significant impacts on situational awareness (SA). Stress can narrow your attention, cause task fixation, contribute to heightened awareness of non-critical information (at the detriment of more critical information) and so much … Continue reading
Posted in Crew Resource Management, Decision Making, firefighter situational awareness, Safety, Situational awareness, Staffing, Stress
Tagged decision making, fire department staffing, firefighter safety, incident command, leadership, situational awareness, staffing, stress, understaffing
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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
