Attention Management Archives - Situational Awareness Matters!™

Complacency: A Lesson Worth Sharing – The Eric Wappel Story – 390

Leave a Comment / Assertiveness, Assumptions, Attention Management, Attitude, Biases, Bravado, Communications, Culture, Decision Making, Denial, Ego, Emotions, Expectations, Experience, Fear, Firefighter Situational Awareness, Gut Feeling, Human Behavior, Human Error, Human Factors, Intuition, Invincible, Judgment, Leadership, Meta Awareness, Mindfulness, Mission, Neuroscience, Overload, Overwhelm, Personnel location, Pressure, Risk, Risk Assessment, Risk Management, Safety, SAMatters Radio, Shared Mental Models, Situational awareness, Situational Readiness, Size Up, Stress, Tacit Knowledge, Teamwork, Training / By Rich Gasaway

Captain Eric Wappel shares a tale of complacency and how he faced it head-on with his department. On January 3, 2022, the North Judson – Wayne Township Fire Department was dispatched for the second time to the same residence for a “furnace smoking.” Captain Eric Wappel wasn’t available for the first response, but responded to …

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The Violence Project: How to stop a mass shooting epidemic. An interview with Dr. James Densley – 389

This episode is an interview is with Dr. James Densley, discussing his book: The Violence Project: How to stop a mass shooting epidemic. Dr. James Densley is Professor and Department Chair of Criminal Justice at Metro State University, part of the Minnesota State system. He is also co-founder of The Violence Project Research Center, best …

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Sirencide: The Impact of Acute Stress in Emergency Vehicle Crashes – 388

Leave a Comment / Article, Attention Management, Automatic Action, Complacency, Crew Resource Management, Culture, Decision Making, Defiance, Denial, Disoriented, Distractions and Interruptions, Ego, Equipment, Excited, Expectations, Experience, Fear, Firefighter Situational Awareness, Habits, Human Behavior, Human Error, Human Factors, Judgment, Leadership, Line of Duty Death, Lost Focus, Mindfulness, Neuroscience, Personnel location, Preoccupation, Pressure, Radios, Risk, Risk Management, Safety, SAMatters Radio, Situational awareness, Standard Operating Procedures/Guidelines, Stress, Task Fixation, Technology / By Rich Gasaway

This interview is with Dr. Dusty Lambert, a firefighter who completed his doctoral degree while researching the impact of acute stress in emergency vehicle crashes. Emergency services provide an invaluable service to communities and cities around the world. Research has shown these professionals encounter significant acute psychological stress throughout their work shifts. Acute stress has …

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Trooper Down on the Roadway. The Bob Bemis Story – SAM 387

Leave a Comment / Attention Management, Automatic Action, Close Call, Cognitive Memory, Complacency, Confusion, Decision Making, Disoriented, Expectations, Experience, Habits, Human Behavior, Human Error, Human Factors, Judgment, Mindfulness, Near Miss, Pre Arrival Lens, Risk, Risk Management, Safety, SAMatters Radio, Short Term Memory, Situational awareness, Size Up, Task Fixation, Time Distortion, Training, Vigilance, Weather, Workload Management, Worksheets / By Rich Gasaway

This interview is with Bob Bemis, a retired Pennsylvania State Trooper who was struck and severely injured while attending to a vehicle fire on I-81 in eastern Pennsylvania. Sergeant (Ret.) Robert Bemis retired in 2017 as a Supervisor in the Operational Training Division at the Pennsylvania State Police Academy in Hershey. With over 30 years …

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Hit on the roadway. The Magnum Bower Story – SAM 386

Leave a Comment / Attention Management, Attitude, Close Call, Communications, Complacency, Decision Making, Disoriented, Equipment, Expectations, Experience, Lost Focus, Miscommunications, Mission Myopia, Multitasking, Near Miss, Personal Protective Equipment, Personnel location, Prediction, Risk, Risk Management, Safety, SAMatters Radio, Situational awareness, Standard Operating Procedures/Guidelines, Training / By Rich Gasaway

This interview is with Magnum Bower, a heavy duty tow truck operator who survived being struck on a roadway incident, resulting in him becoming a quadriplegic. On May 9, 2019, heavy duty tow truck operator, Magnum Bower, was struck while working on a roadside assist. The driver who struck Magnum was traveling approximately 25 miles …

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Hands-Free Driving Laws are a Bad Idea

Leave a Comment / Article, Attention Management, Cognitive Memory, Confusion, Decision Making, Firefighter Situational Awareness, Human Behavior, Human Error, Human Factors, Information overload, Lost Focus, Mindfulness, Multitasking, Neuroscience, Overload, Perception, Preoccupation, Risk, Safety, Selective Listening, Situational awareness / By Rich Gasaway

Before you get too upset and refuse to read this article, I’ll ask you to give me just two minutes to explain the situational awareness lesson behind this statement. The first premise is: We must acknowledge (and accept) that it is easy for drivers to get distracted and have their situational awareness impacted while talking …

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Improving Responder Safety on the Roadway: The John Gonzalez Interview -SAM 380

Leave a Comment / Assumptions, Attention Management, Automation, Close Call, Crew Resource Management, Culture, Decision Making, Defiance, Denial, Disoriented, Distractions and Interruptions, Equipment, Expectations, Human Behavior, Human Error, Mindfulness, Mission, Mission Myopia, Personnel location, Prediction, Preoccupation, Risk, Risk Assessment, Risk Management, Safety, SAMatters Radio, Situational awareness, Situational Readiness, Teamwork, Technology, Tunnel Vision, Vigilance / By Rich Gasaway

This episode is an interview with John Gonzalez from Florian Re Appratus, a company focused on improving responder safety on roadway incidents. John Gonzalez is a past District Chief of Toms River Fire District 1 in Ocean County, NJ and has been an active volunteer firefighter for over 30 years. Chief Gonzalez served as a …

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Preventing a Mass Shooter Event: The Darin Wall Story SAM 379

Leave a Comment / Assertiveness, Assumptions, Attention Management, Attitude, Decision Making, Gut Feeling, Human Behavior, Hyper Vigilance, Intuition, Judgment, Mindfulness, Perception, Prediction, Risk, Risk Assessment, SAMatters Radio, Situational awareness, Size Up, Vigilance / By Rich Gasaway

This episode interviews a man whose situational awareness and intuition helped him prevent a mass shooting event in Boise, Idaho. On September 4, Grayhawk bass player, Darin Wall, stopped a potential mass shooting by preventing a man from gaining entry into a private party at an event where the band had played earlier in the …

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Simulations Improve Situational Awareness – SAM 371

Leave a Comment / Assumptions, Attention Management, Automatic Action, Benchmarks, Cognitive Memory, Communications, Competency, Decision Making, Expectations, Experience, Explicit Knowledge, Habits, Human Behavior, Human Error, Human Factors, Intuition, Judgment, Mindfulness, Neuroscience, Pattern Matching, Pre Arrival Lens, Prediction, Risk, Risk Assessment, Safety, SAMatters Radio, Shared Mental Models, Simulation, Situational awareness, Standard Operating Procedures/Guidelines, Technology, Training, Workload Management, Worksheets / By Rich Gasaway

In this episode, we discuss how simulations can improve situational awareness. Your highest level of situational awareness is formed when you are able to make accurate predictions about future events. In neuroscience, this is called projection and it simply means you are able to predict, or project, the future events. This is accomplished through mental …

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Distractions and Interruptions – SAM 368

Leave a Comment / Attention Management, Checklists, Decision Making, Disoriented, Distractions and Interruptions, Expectations, Firefighter Situational Awareness, Human Behavior, Human Error, Human Factors, Interruptions, Judgment, Lost Focus, Mindfulness, Motion Induced Blindness, Neuroscience, Overload, Overwhelm, Personnel location, Preoccupation, Risk, Risk Assessment, Risk Management, Safety, SAMatters Radio, Situational awareness, Task Fixation, Technology, Vigilance / By Rich Gasaway

In this episode, we preview the distractions and interruptions chapter from the book, How Smart Workers Use Situational Awareness to Improve Safety. Along a worker’s journey toward envisioning, developing, and implementing their plan to guide their (hopefully) successful outcome, they are likely to encounter two situational awareness barriers that can quickly derail their focus. Distractions …

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