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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.

Episode 134 | Assessing resources

  In this episode, we discuss the importance of setting operational strategy based on available resources and the impact of understaffing on situational awareness. Length: 25 minutes click the YouTube icon to listen         _____________________________________________________ If you are interested in taking your understanding of situational awareness and high-risk decision making to a higher […]

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Episode 133 | The Devil’s Advocate

In this episode, we discuss the role of the devil’s advocate on emergency scenes and how the advocate can help when there is a flawed perception of reality. Length: 27 minutes click the YouTube icon to listen       _____________________________________________________ If you are interested in taking your understanding of situational awareness and high-risk decision making

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Firefighter Safety: Mistakes & Best Practices – Live Training

Firefighter Safety: Mistakes and Best Practices Program Length: 2 to 3 hours Appropriate for: First Responders (Fire, Police, EMS) Company Officers Training Officers Incident Commanders Risk Managers Program Description This program looks at a summary of 10 common mistakes and 10 best practices discovered from the presenter’s extensive evaluation of more than 500 near-miss reports

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safety training

Episode 132 | Online Academy Preview

  I am super excited to be able to share with you the features and enrollment options for the newly released Situational Awareness Matters Online Academy. Length: 22 minutes click the YouTube icon to listen     _____________________________________________________ If you are interested in taking your understanding of situational awareness and high-risk decision making to a higher

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We Must Stop The Insanity: Part 1

The training practices used in many communities are setting up emergency response personnel for failure and flawed situational awareness. The sad part is most don’t even realize they’re doing it. When casualties occur, so do investigations. The investigations result in recommendations for how to prevent future casualty events. The National Institute of Occupational Safety and

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Episode 131 | Best practices for managing mental workload

    In this episode, we discuss five best practices for managing mental workload under stressful working conditions. Length: 26 minutes click the YouTube icon to listen       _____________________________________________________ If you are interested in taking your understanding of situational awareness and high-risk decision making to a higher level, check out the Situational Awareness Matters Online

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Stop Judging to Improve Situational Awareness

Oftentimes when I am talking with first responders about the role of situational awareness and casualty incidents, especially the ones that have recently occurred, they share with me their opinions and frustrations about the performance of the responders and the decisions made by command staff. If I have learned anything, it’s first responders are opinionated

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Episode 130 | Auditory Exclusion – Going deaf under stress

  In this episode, we discuss the phenomenon known as auditory exclusion (going deaf under stress) and I explain how it happens and how it can impact situational awareness and decision making.   Length: 35 minutes click the YouTube icon to listen       _____________________________________________________ If you are interested in taking your understanding of situational

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