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 123 | Positive and Negative Clues and Cues

Leave a Comment / Decision Making, Expectations, Firefighter Situational Awareness, Judgment, Mental Models, SAMatters Radio, Shared Mental Models, Size Up /

  In this episode we explore how responders use positive and negative clues and cues to develop and maintain situational awareness at emergency scenes. Length: 30 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 […]

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Episode 121 | Three types of stress

Leave a Comment / Emotions, Fatigue, Overload, Overwhelm, Physical Fitness, Pressure, SAMatters Radio, Stress, Workload Management /

  In this episode we explore three types of stress that can impact first responders. Length: 33 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 Academy. CLICK HERE for

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Episode 120 | Interview with Instructor John Dixon

Leave a Comment / Assumptions, Attitude, Automatic Action, Biases, Bravado, Complacency, Confusion, Culture, Defiance, Denial, Ego, Error Creep, Habits, Human Behavior, Human Factors, Incompetence, Invincible, Judgment, Leadership, Over Confident, Pressure, Routines, Safety, SAMatters Radio, Under Confident /

  In this episode I sat down for an interview with Instructor John Dixon to discuss his passion topic – the normalization of deviance.     Length: 63 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 119 | Interview with West Metro Division Chief Dan Pfannenstiel – Part 2

Leave a Comment / Assumptions, Automatic Action, Close Call, Command Location, Command Support, Communications, Confusion, Fatigue, Goals, Mindfulness, Miscommunications, Mission Myopia, Muscle Memory, Personnel location, Progress Reports, Radios, SAMatters Radio, Selective Listening, Shared Mental Models, Teamwork, Workload Management /

  In this episode I sat down for an interview with West Metro Division Chief Dan Pfannenstiel to discuss a near-miss that occurred at a residential dwelling fire. This is part two of a two-part interview so if you have not yet, be sure to listen to episode 118 for the set-up to the lessons

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Episode 118 | Interview with West Metro Division Chief Dan Pfannenstiel – Part 1

Leave a Comment / Assumptions, Automatic Action, Close Call, Command Location, Command Support, Communications, Confusion, Fatigue, Goals, Mindfulness, Mission Myopia, Muscle Memory, Personnel location, Progress Reports, Radios, SAMatters Radio, Selective Listening, Shared Mental Models, Teamwork, Workload Management /

  In this episode, I sat down for an interview with West Metro Division Chief Dan Pfannenstiel to discuss a near-miss that occurred at a residential dwelling fire. This is part one of a two-part interview so be sure to also listen to episode 119 for the lessons learned. Length: 51 minutes Click the YouTube

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Episode 117 | Interview with Shawnee Fire Battalion Chief Ryan Pyle – Part 2

Leave a Comment / SAMatters Radio /

  In this episode I sat down for an interview with Shawnee (KS) Fire Battalion Chief Ryan Pyle to discuss a residential structure incident that resulted in the death of Firefighter John Glaser. Ryan discusses the details of this tragic incident and the lessons his department learned from it. This is the second part of

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Episode 116 | Interview with Shawnee Fire Battalion Chief Ryan Pyle – Part 1

Leave a Comment / SAMatters Radio /

In this episode I sat down for an interview with Shawnee (KS) Fire Battalion Chief Ryan Pyle to discuss a residential structure incident that resulted in the death of Firefighter John Glaser. Ryan discusses the details of this tragic incident and the lessons his department learned from it. This episode is part 1 of a

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Staffing Levels Impact Situational Awareness

1 Comment / Article, Crew Resource Management, Decision Making, Firefighter Situational Awareness, Safety, Situational awareness, Staffing, Stress /

Research has demonstrated that, without question, stress can have significant impacts on situational awareness (SA). Stress can narrow your attention, cause task fixation, contribute to heightened awareness of non-critical information (at the detriment of more critical information) and so much more. As stress erodes situational awareness, it can also impact decision making. The research I

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Episode 115 | Vehicle Fire Situational Awareness

Leave a Comment / Attention Management, Close Call, Complacency, Culture, Decision Making, Expectations, Habits, Human Error, Judgment, Near Miss, Over Confident, Personal Protective Equipment, Personnel location, Prediction, Safety, SAMatters Radio, Standard Operating Procedures/Guidelines, Task Fixation /

In this episode we explore the importance of developing and maintain situational awareness while operating on the scenes of vehicle fires. Length: 34 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

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