Lost Focus Archives - Situational Awareness Matters!™

EMDR Treatment for First Responders: Interview with Dr. Deborah Korn – 393

Leave a Comment / Accountability, Anger, Article, Attitude, Cognitive Memory, Communications, Confusion, Culture, Decision Making, Defiance, Denial, Disoriented, Emotions, Expectations, Experience, Explicit Knowledge, Fatigue, Fear, Firefighter Situational Awareness, Frustration, Gut Feeling, Human Behavior, Human Factors, Illness, Intuition, Long-Term Memory, Lost Focus, Mindfulness, Near Miss, Neuroscience, Overload, Overwhelm, Pattern Matching, Perception, Perception Of Reality, Physical Fitness, Prediction, Preoccupation, Pressure, Risk, Risk Management, Safety, SAMatters Radio, Situational awareness, Stress, Tacit Knowledge, Task Fixation, Task Saturation, Teamwork, Workload Management / By Rich Gasaway

This episode is provides first responders a look into a treatment option for Post Traumatic Event Brain Injuries called Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR). Dr. Deborah Korn, PsyD, an internationally renowned pioneer and expert in EMDR Therapy and author of the book Every Memory Deserves Respect: EMDR the Proven Trauma Therapy with the …

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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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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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When Training Goes Wrong: The Stan Mettinger Story – SAM 378

Leave a Comment / Assumptions, Attitude, Close Call, Competency, Decision Making, Equipment, Expectations, Experience, Human Error, Incompetence, Judgment, Lost Focus, Mindfulness, Near Miss, Personal Protective Equipment, Preoccupation, Risk, Risk Assessment, Risk Management, Routines, Safety, SAMatters Radio, Situational awareness, Stress, Tacit Knowledge, Task Fixation, Teamwork, Training, Tunnel Vision, Vigilance / By Rich Gasaway

This episode shares the story of a firefighter who was burned during a vehicle fire training scenario. Stan Mettinger was setting up a training scenario that involved setting vehicles on fire. He was using diesel fuel to ignite hay inside the vehicle when the vapors flashed and set Stan on fire resulting in first, second …

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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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My life changed forever in a split second. The John Moore Story Part 2 – SAM 364

Leave a Comment / Assumptions, Attitude, Close Call, Communications, Decision Making, Emotions, Expectations, Fear, Habits, Human Error, Invincible, Judgment, Lost Focus, Mindfulness, Mission Myopia, Near Miss, Over Confident, Personal Protective Equipment, Personnel location, Pre Arrival Lens, Prediction, Preoccupation, Pressure, Risk, Risk Assessment, Risk Management, Safety, SAMatters Radio, Situational awareness, Size Up, Task Fixation, Training, Tunnel Vision, Vigilance, Weather / By Rich Gasaway

In this episode, Firefighter-Paramedic John Moore continues the story of how his life was changed forever after an off-duty accident resulted in a permanent paralyzing spinal cord injury. John Moore lives in Southwest Ohio with his wife of nearly 15 years and their two children (ages 7 and 9). He attended Sinclair Community College directly …

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My life changed forever in a split second. The John Moore Story Part 1 – SAM 363

Leave a Comment / Assumptions, Attitude, Close Call, Communications, Complacency, Decision Making, Emotions, Expectations, Fear, Habits, Human Error, Invincible, Judgment, Lost Focus, Mindfulness, Mission Myopia, Near Miss, Over Confident, Personal Protective Equipment, Personnel location, Pre Arrival Lens, Prediction, Preoccupation, Pressure, Risk, Risk Assessment, Risk Management, Safety, SAMatters Radio, Situational awareness, Size Up, Task Fixation, Training, Tunnel Vision, Vigilance, Weather / By Rich Gasaway

In this episode, Firefighter-Paramedic John Moore shares the story of how his life was changed forever after an off-duty accident resulted in a permanent paralyzing spinal cord injury. John Moore lives in Southwest Ohio with his wife of nearly 15 years and their two children (ages 7 and 9). He attended Sinclair Community College directly …

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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 Rich Gasaway

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 Rich Gasaway

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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