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Rich Gasaway

Richard B. Gasaway served 33 years on the front lines as a firefighter, EMT-Paramedic and fire chief. He earned his Doctor of Philosophy degree while studying how individuals, teams and organizations develop and maintain situational awareness and make decisions in high stress, high consequence, time compressed environments. Dr. Gasaway is widely considered to be one of the nation's leading authorities on first responder situational awareness and decision making. His material has been featured and referenced in more than 400 book chapters, research projects, journal articles, podcasts, webinars and videos. His research and passion to improve workplace safety through improved situational awareness is unrivaled. Dr. Gasaway's leadership and safety programs have been presented to more than 42,000 first responders, emergency managers, medical providers, military personnel, aviation employees, industrial workers and business leaders throughout North America, Europe, Asia and Australia.

First, Do No Harm!

Primum non nocere is the Latin phrase that means “first, do no harm.” This is a commonly taught principle in healthcare. In fact, the Hippocratic Oath, taken by doctors, promises they will abstain from doing harm to their patients. The premise is it may be better to NOT do something or to do nothing at […]

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Safety training for Portsmouth Naval Shipyard

Gasaway Consulting Group, LLC, the parent of company of Situational Awareness Matters will conduct a situational awareness site evaluations and training for employees at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard. The assessments and training started in 2017 and will be completed in 2018. The focus of the training will be to help improve situational awareness and decision

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Safety training for oil refinery operators at Syncrude Canada

Gasaway Consulting Group, LLC, the parent of company of Situational Awareness Matters has secured a year-long contract to train 600+ oil refinery operators at Syncrude Canada’s Fort McMurray Operations. The training will take place in 2018 and 2019 and is part of a four-pronged approach to improve operator safety during Periods of High Vulnerability that

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Episode 204 | Assumptions

When we are operating under conditions of stress and consequence, coupled with changing conditions and time compression, we can feel a sense of urgency and this can cause us to want to take a shortcut from safety best practices.  Length: 27 minutes   click the YouTube icon to listen       __________________________________________________ If you

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Firefighting: It’s a whole new ballgame

There is little doubt the economic recession of 2008-2009 had a significant impact on the nation’s fire service. Hardly a day went by where there wasn’t some news about an organization that downsized, rightsized or capsized. There are all kinds of explanations and terms being attached to what happened. One I heard at the time

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Episode 203 | Normalization of Deviance

When we are operating under conditions of stress and consequence, coupled with changing conditions and time compression, we can feel a sense of urgency and this can cause us to want to take a shortcut from safety best practices.  Length: 29 minutes       click the YouTube icon to listen       __________________________________________________

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Fifteen Situational Awareness Barriers

The mission of Situational Awareness Matters is to help you see the bad things coming… in time to change bad outcomes. SA is a complex neurological process and I go to painstaking efforts to ensure that what I teach here, on the podcast and in classrooms is “first responder friendly.” I don’t ever want a

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Episode 202 | Relationship Bias

The episode explores how relationship bias can impact situational awareness.  Length: 29 minutes click the YouTube icon to listen

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Fear can be a barrier to situational awareness

Everyone has fears and fear can certainly impact a person’s situational awareness. Some people are better at controlling their fears while others are controlled by their fears. Some people mask their fears well while others wear their fear on their sleeves. Some people live in denial of their fears and others face their fears and

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