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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.

Sharing multiple near-miss experiences including being held-up at gunpoint. The Jim Arie Story – Part 2 (Episode 332)

Anger, Assumptions, Attention Management, Attitude, Close Call, Competency, Confusion, Decision Making, Denial, Emotions, Expectations, Experience, Fear, Firefighter Situational Awareness, Intuition, Lost Focus, Mindfulness, Near Miss, Optimism, Perception, Prediction, Preoccupation, Risk, Risk Assessment, Safety, SAMatters Radio, Situational awareness, Size Up, Stress, Tacit Knowledge, Task Fixation, Time Distortion, Tunnel Vision, Tunneled Senses /

This episode is Part 2 of a 2-part interview where we learn about multiple near-miss events experienced by retired Fire Chief, Jim Arie throughout his 43-year career and he’ll discuss the situational awareness lessons from being held-up at gunpoint in March, 2020. Length: 40 minutes Click the YouTube icon to watch the full video.   […]

Sharing multiple near-miss experiences including being held-up at gunpoint. The Jim Arie Story – Part 2 (Episode 332) Read More »

Sharing multiple near-miss experiences including being held-up at gunpoint. The Jim Arie Story – Part 1 (Episode 331)

Anger, Assumptions, Attention Management, Attitude, Close Call, Competency, Confusion, Decision Making, Denial, Emotions, Expectations, Experience, Fear, Firefighter Situational Awareness, Intuition, Lost Focus, Mindfulness, Near Miss, Optimism, Perception, Prediction, Preoccupation, Risk, Risk Assessment, Safety, SAMatters Radio, Situational awareness, Size Up, Stress, Tacit Knowledge, Task Fixation, Time Distortion, Tunnel Vision, Tunneled Senses /

This episode is Part 1 of a 2-part interview where we learn about multiple near-miss events experienced by retired Fire Chief, Jim Arie throughout his 43-year career and he’ll discuss the situational awareness lessons from being held-up at gunpoint in March, 2020. Length: 41 minutes Click the YouTube icon to watch the full video.  

Sharing multiple near-miss experiences including being held-up at gunpoint. The Jim Arie Story – Part 1 (Episode 331) Read More »

Seven Situational Awareness Thieves (Episode 330)

Accountability, Assumptions, Auditory exclusion, Bravado, Command Location, Command Presence, Command Support, Communications, Competency, Complacency, Culture, Decision Making, Defiance, Denial, Ego, Human Behavior, Human Error, Invincible, Judgment, Mindfulness, Miscommunications, Pressure, Risk, Risk Assessment, Safety, SAMatters Radio, Situational awareness, Size Up, Standard Operating Procedures/Guidelines, Teamwork, Tunnel Vision /

You might think that by now the importance of completing a 360-degree size-up would be second nature for firefighters.  But it’s not.  In fact, failing to complete a proper size-up remains one of the most often cited contributing factors in NIOSH Line-of-Duty death reports.  There are lots of reasons why proper size-ups are not completed.

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The 360 Degree Size-up (Episode 329)

Accountability, Assumptions, Automatic Action, Automatic Action, Building Construction, Competency, Complacency, Culture, Decision Making, Expectations, Habits, Mayday, Mayday and RIT, Mental Models, Mindfulness, Multitasking, Muscle Memory, Near Miss, Optimism, Over Confident, Overload, Overwhelm, Perception Of Reality, Progress Reports, Routines, Safety, SAMatters Radio, Shared Mental Models, Situational awareness, Size Up, Standard Operating Procedures/Guidelines, Stress, Task Fixation /

You might think that by now the importance of completing a 360-degree size-up would be second nature for firefighters.  But it’s not.  In fact, failing to complete a proper size-up remains one of the most often cited contributing factors in NIOSH Line-of-Duty death reports.  There are lots of reasons why proper size-ups are not completed.

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The Impact of Understaffing (Episode 328)

Accountability, Anger, Assumptions, Building Construction, Command Support, Communications, Crew Resource Management, Culture, Decision Making, Denial, Expectations, Experience, Human Error, Human Factors, Leadership, Mission, Multitasking, Overload, Overwhelm, Personnel location, Pressure, Progress Reports, Response Time Delays, Risk, Risk Assessment, Safety, SAMatters Radio, Staffing, Stress, Teamwork, understaffing /

The pandemic has been tough on everyone, especially first responders who have stepped up to the task.  But for many first response agencies, the worst is yet to come as the economic fallout will likely create budget shortfalls that will, in turn, cause fire departments to reduce staffing and services.  This show looks at the

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Bravado – A barrier to situational awareness (Episode 327)

Accountability, Anger, Assertiveness, Attitude, Bravado, Command Location, Communications, Competency, Complacency, Culture, Decision Making, Defiance, Denial, Ego, Emotions, Experience, Fear, Frustration, Human Behavior, Human Error, Human Factors, Incompetence, Invincible, Over Confident, Pressure, Risk, Safety, SAMatters Radio, Selective Listening, Sensory Conflict, Under Confident /

Bravado is defined as “a bold manner or a show of boldness intended to impress or intimidate.”  A co-worker or boss displaying bravado can be dangerous because their need to impress or intimidate can cause them to miss critical clues and cues and flaw their situational awareness. Length: 12 minutes Click the YouTube icon to

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Situational Awareness Best Practices for Incident Commanders (Episode 326)

Accountability, Assumptions, Attention Management, Benchmarks, Biases, Building Construction, Checklists, Close Call, Cognitive Memory, Command Location, Command Presence, Command Support, Communications, Competency, Crew Resource Management, Culture, Decision Making, Distractions and Interruptions, Equipment, Expectations, Explicit Knowledge, Goals, Human Behavior, Human Error, Human Factors, Information overload, Interruptions, Intuition, Long-Term Memory, Mental Models, Mindfulness, Miscommunications, Mission, Multitasking, Over Confident, Over Staffing, Overload, Overwhelm, Pattern Matching, Perception, Preoccupation, Pressure, Radios, Repetition, Risk, Risk Assessment, Safety, SAMatters Radio, Shared Mental Models, Short Term Memory, Situational awareness, Situational Readiness, Size Up, Staffing, Standard Operating Procedures/Guidelines, Stress, Tacit Knowledge, Task Fixation, Teamwork, Time Distortion, understaffing, Workload Management, Worksheets /

There are three component parts to situational awareness – perception, understanding and prediction.  There are barriers that can impact awareness on all three levels. The application of best practices can help incident commanders reduce the impact of barriers. Length: 35 minutes Click the YouTube icon to watch the full video.   __________________________________________________ All of our

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What we fear most Part 2 (Episode 325)

Accountability, Assertiveness, Assumptions, Attitude, Bravado, Communications, Competency, Culture, Decision Making, Defiance, Denial, Ego, Emotions, Experience, Fear, Frustration, Human Behavior, Human Factors, Insubordination, Invincible, Leadership, Miscommunications, Pressure, Progress Reports, Risk, Risk Assessment, Safety, SAMatters Radio, Stress, Teamwork, Under Confident /

The fear of public speaking consistently ranks near the top of the list in fear surveys.  This won’t come as a surprise for many.  But the consequences of not speaking up can be catastrophic for organizations and for the individual gripped by this fear. This episode explores the fear of public speaking and offers some

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Deadly Methyl Bromide exposure: The Misty Worrell story – Part 2 (Episode 324)

Attitude, Confusion, Decision Making, Disoriented, Emotions, Fatigue, Human Behavior, Human Error, Human Factors, Hyper Vigilance, Illness, Information overload, Invincible, Mindfulness, Neuroscience, Overload, Overwhelm, Preoccupation, Pressure, Risk, Risk Assessment, Safety, SAMatters Radio, Stress, Task Fixation, Task Saturation, Tunnel Vision, Tunneled Senses, Vigilance /

Misty Worrell and her partner on Cypress Creek EMS responded to a medical call that would result in two fatalities and the EMS crew being exposed to deadly Methyl Bromide.  Because there is no cure for Methyl Bromide poisoning, Misty, a mother of five children, was instructed to get her affairs in order as she

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Deadly Methyl Bromide exposure: The Misty Worrell story – Part 1 (Episode 323)

Attitude, Confusion, Decision Making, Disoriented, Emotions, Fatigue, Human Behavior, Human Error, Human Factors, Hyper Vigilance, Illness, Information overload, Invincible, Mindfulness, Neuroscience, Overload, Overwhelm, Preoccupation, Pressure, Risk, Risk Assessment, Safety, SAMatters Radio, Stress, Task Fixation, Task Saturation, Tunnel Vision, Tunneled Senses, Vigilance /

Misty Worrell and her partner on Cypress Creek EMS responded to a medical call that would result in two fatalities and the EMS crew being exposed to deadly Methyl Bromide.  Because there is no cure for Methyl Bromide poisoning, Misty, a mother of five children, was instructed to get her affairs in order as she

Deadly Methyl Bromide exposure: The Misty Worrell story – Part 1 (Episode 323) Read More »

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