Distractions and Interruptions

These are first responder situational awareness and decision making issues and opportunities related to distractions and interruptions.

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

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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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

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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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

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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Working Command – SAM 360

Leave a Comment / Automation, Benchmarks, Checklists, Command Location, Command Presence, Command Support, Communications, Competency, Crew Resource Management, Decision Making, Distractions and Interruptions, Experience, Firefighter Situational Awareness, Human Behavior, Human Error, Human Factors, Interruptions, Judgment, Leadership, Lost Focus, Mayday, Mayday and RIT, Mental Models, Mindfulness, Mission, Neuroscience, Personnel location, Preoccupation, Risk, Risk Assessment, Risk Management, Safety, SAMatters Radio, Shared Mental Models, Situational awareness, Standard Operating Procedures/Guidelines, Stress, Teamwork, Vigilance, Workload Management / By

In this episode explores how situational awareness may be impacted when the first arriving officer establishes a “working command.” I get asked a lot of questions about what the first arriving company officer should do at a working structure fire. Specifically, the debate revolves around two basic premise. Should the first arriving company officer assume …

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Contact with a 33kV Electric Line. The Sioux Falls Fire Department Story – SAM 357

Leave a Comment / Accountability, Assumptions, Close Call, Communications, Complacency, Confusion, Crew Resource Management, Culture, Decision Making, Distractions and Interruptions, Equipment, Error Creep, Expectations, Experience, Fear, Firefighter Situational Awareness, Habits, Human Behavior, Human Error, Human Factors, Judgment, Lost Focus, Mindfulness, Miscommunications, Mission, Mission Myopia, Multitasking, Near Miss, Neuroscience, Over Confident, Personnel location, Prediction, Preoccupation, Risk, Risk Assessment, Risk Management, Routines, Safety, SAMatters Radio, Situational awareness, Situational Readiness, Task Fixation, Teamwork, Training, Vigilance / By

This episode interviews four members of the Sioux Falls (South Dakota) Fire Department who experienced a near-miss event when the platform on Truck 7 came into contact with a 33 kV transmission line during a routine truck check at the station.    First responders spend a lot of time together, on calls, in the station, …

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Five Situational Awareness Lessons from a LODD Incident – SAM 354

Leave a Comment / Accountability, Assumptions, Attitude, Auditory exclusion, Automatic Action, Benchmarks, Building Construction, Close Call, Command Location, Command Presence, Command Support, Communications, Competency, Complacency, Confusion, Crew Resource Management, Culture, Decision Making, Denial, Disoriented, Distractions and Interruptions, Emotions, Equipment, Error Creep, Excited, Expectations, Experience, Explicit Knowledge, Firefighter Situational Awareness, Goals, Gut Feeling, Human Behavior, Human Error, Human Factors, Hyper Vigilance, Independent Goal Setting - Freelancing, Information overload, Judgment, Leadership, Line of Duty Death, Lost Focus, Mayday, Mayday and RIT, Mental Models, Meta Awareness, Mindfulness, Miscommunications, Mission, Mission Myopia, Neuroscience, PAR, Perception, Perception Of Reality, Personal Protective Equipment, Personnel location, Prediction, Preoccupation, Progress Reports, Radios, Risk, Risk Assessment, Risk Management, Safety, SAMatters Radio, Shared Mental Models, Situational awareness, Situational Readiness, Size Up, Staffing, Standard Operating Procedures/Guidelines, Tacit Knowledge, Task Fixation, Teamwork, Vigilance, Workload Management / By

On June 2, 2011, the San Francisco Fire Department suffered the tragic loss of 2 firefighters at 133 Berkeley Way. The episode shares some valuable situational awareness lessons from this tragic incident. The San Francisco Fire Department conducted an internal review of the incident and issued a 156-page report on their findings. Many of the …

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The Myth of Multitasking – SAM 346

Leave a Comment / Assumptions, Attention Management, Automatic Action, Checklists, Cognitive Memory, Competency, Confusion, Decision Making, Disoriented, Distractions and Interruptions, Expectations, Frustration, Human Behavior, Human Error, Human Factors, Information overload, Interruptions, Judgment, Long-Term Memory, Lost Focus, Mind Drift, Mindfulness, Multitasking, Neuroscience, Overload, Overwhelm, Pattern Matching, Perception, Perception Of Reality, Prediction, Preoccupation, Risk, Risk Assessment, Risk Management, Safety, SAMatters Radio, Selective Listening, Short Term Memory, Situational awareness, Task Fixation, Task Saturation, Vigilance, Worksheets / By

This episode explores the challenges workers face while operating in dynamically changing conditions that require sharing attention to multiple, concurrent activities – a.k.a., multitasking.  If you are the type of person who can work on your notebook, listen to music on your iPod, talk on your cell phone and text message at the same time, …

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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 / By

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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Situational Awareness Thoughts and Observations About Covid-19 (Episode 313)

Leave a Comment / Accountability, Anger, Assumptions, Attitude, Biases, Bravado, Communications, Competency, Complacency, Confusion, Defiance, Denial, Distractions and Interruptions, Emotions, Expectations, Fatigue, Fear, Frustration, Human Behavior, Human Factors, Hyper Vigilance, Information overload, Invincible, Leadership, Mindfulness, Miscommunications, Mission, Multitasking, Over Confident, Overload, Overwhelm, Perception Of Reality, Personal Protective Equipment, Preoccupation, Pressure, Risk, Safety, SAMatters Radio, Shared Mental Models, Situational awareness, Situational Readiness, Standard Operating Procedures/Guidelines, Stress, Teamwork, Training, Under Confident, understaffing, Vigilance / By

In this episode, I share situational awareness thoughts and observations about the COVID-19 Pandemic and address 25 situational awareness barriers that are causing me concern. Length: 65 minutes   Click the YouTube icon to watch the full VIDEO     __________________________________________________ All of our live event topics are now available, virtually. CLICK HERE for details, enrollment …

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A line of duty death perspective – The Jeff Dickey Story (Episode 312)

Leave a Comment / Accountability, Assumptions, Building Construction, Communications, Culture, Decision Making, Disoriented, Distractions and Interruptions, Gut Feeling, Human Error, Human Factors, Line of Duty Death, Mayday, Mayday and RIT, Mental Models, Mission, Mission Myopia, Personal Protective Equipment, Personnel location, Radios, Risk, Risk Assessment, Safety, SAMatters Radio, Size Up, Staffing, Standard Operating Procedures/Guidelines, Stress, Teamwork / By

Lieutenant Jeff Dickey has served the Washington, D.C. Fire Department for more than 30 years.  Jeff was an acting officer during an incident where a DC firefighter was killed and Jeff was on the crew that recovered his body. Length: 59 minutes     Click the YouTube icon to watch the full VIDEO     …

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