Accountability Archives - Page 22 of 23 - Situational Awareness Matters!™

Episode 17: Situational awareness lessons learned from a double line-of-duty death

Leave a Comment / Accountability, Close Call, Crew Resource Management, Culture, Decision Making, Emotions, Fear, Firefighter Situational Awareness, Human Behavior, Line of Duty Death, Safety, SAMatters Radio, Situational awareness, Staffing, Stress, Teamwork, Training, Workload Management / Rich Gasaway

“Lessons learned from the Athletic Club Hotel Fire.” This episode is an interview with Indianapolis Health & Safety Chief, Doug Abernathy. In 1992, Doug had been on the Indianapolis Fire Department for four years and was serving as a firefighter on Engine 13. He shares a powerful story about brotherhood, love of the job and […]

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Special Episode 002 | Near Miss Expert Panel

Leave a Comment / Accountability, Communications, Crew Resource Management, Culture, Decision Making, Ego, Firefighter Situational Awareness, Human Behavior, Human Factors, Personal Protective Equipment, Risk Assessment, Safety, SAMatters Radio, Situational awareness, Size Up, Standard Operating Procedures/Guidelines, Tacit Knowledge, Teamwork / Rich Gasaway

Situational Awareness Matters Radio Show Special Episode 002 Topic: Firefighter Near-Miss Reporting System Expert Panel Discussion (from Fire-Rescue International, Dallas Texas) The purpose of the SAMatters Radio show is to improve situational awareness and decision making for individuals and teams who work in high risk, high consequence environments. The SAMatters mission is simple… To help

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Episode 16: The impact of fatigue on situational awareness

Leave a Comment / Accountability, Attention Management, Communications, Crew Resource Management, Decision Making, Distractions and Interruptions, Emotions, Fatigue, Human Behavior, Human Factors, Information overload, Multitasking, Physical Fitness, Safety, SAMatters Radio, Situational awareness, Situational Readiness, Staffing, Standard Operating Procedures/Guidelines, Stress, Task Saturation, Teamwork, Workload Management / Rich Gasaway

Episode 16: The impact of fatigue on situational awareness Back in episode 7 I answered a listener question about the impact of fatigue on situational awareness. I promised in that episode that I would dedicate more time to this topic in an upcoming episode. So I want to explore the issue of fatigue some more.

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Episode 15: Radio Communications Can Impact Situational Awareness

Leave a Comment / Accountability, Communications, Human Factors, Safety, SAMatters Radio / Rich Gasaway

Episode 15: Radio Communications Can Impact Situational Awareness On this episode…. We’ll discuss how radio communications can impact situational awareness. I’ll share a near-miss incident where a firefighter fell through an open crawl space hatch in a floor due to lack of communications from a fellow firefighters. Finally, I will answer one of the most

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Episode 14: The need for realistic training

Leave a Comment / Accountability, Building Construction, Competency, Culture, Decision Making, Equipment, Firefighter Situational Awareness, Leadership, Mental Models, Personal Protective Equipment, Repetition, Safety, SAMatters Radio, Simulation, Situational awareness, Situational Readiness, Size Up, Standard Operating Procedures/Guidelines, Tacit Knowledge, Teamwork, Training / Rich Gasaway

Episode 14: Interview with Dave Casey, Director of Louisiana State Fire & Emergency Training Institute on the need for realistic training. Length: 57 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

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Working Command and Situational Awareness

6 Comments / Accountability, Attention Management, Communications, Crew Resource Management, Culture, Decision Making, Firefighter Situational Awareness, Safety, Situational awareness, Size Up, Stress, Teamwork, Workload Management / Rich Gasaway

I seem to be getting asked a lot lately 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 a fixed command position outside the structure and coordinate the activities of incoming units? Or, should the

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High Reliability Organizations – Processes

2 Comments / Accountability, Communications, Decision Making, Firefighter Situational Awareness, Human Behavior, Information overload, Leadership, Safety, Situational awareness, Situational Readiness, Teamwork, Training, Workload Management / Rich Gasaway

Last month I wrote a piece on the traits of high reliability organizations (HROs) and received a lot of very positive feedback. Thank you! This article will focus on the processes used by HROs. These processes definitely provide some valuable lessons for public safety agencies. Compare your organization and see if you may find some

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High Reliability Organizations – Traits

Leave a Comment / Accountability, Communications, Culture, Decision Making, Firefighter Situational Awareness, Human Behavior, Information overload, Leadership, Safety, Situational awareness, Situational Readiness, Teamwork, Training, Workload Management / Rich Gasaway

There’s a lot being talked about these days about the concept of high reliability organizations. The concept is being embraced by many hospitals throughout the United States and, arguably, for good reason. The principles of highly reliable organizations have direct application to first responders. This contribution focuses on helping you understand the overarching concept of

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Healing and growing from tragedy

Leave a Comment / Accountability, Communications, Crew Resource Management, Decision Making, Firefighter Situational Awareness, Leadership, Mayday and RIT, Safety, Situational awareness, Situational Readiness, Training / Rich Gasaway

I had an opportunity today to present along side Asheville Fire Chief Scott Burnette at the North Carolina Society of Fire Rescue Instructors Conference. This opportunity came as a result of another wonderful opportunity that Chief Burnette extended to me to conduct facilitated debriefings following the line-of-duty death of Captain Jeff Bowen. During the debriefing

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Tracking of personnel

2 Comments / Accountability, Communications, Crew Resource Management, Decision Making, Firefighter Situational Awareness, Leadership, Mayday and RIT, Safety, Situational awareness, Staffing, Teamwork / Rich Gasaway

Accountability: A critically important component to emergency scene safety when personnel operate in a hazardous environment. From the perspective of situational awareness, accountability plays several roles. The obvious role is personnel accountability facilitates the rapid deployment of rescue teams if something goes awry. Command knows the crew sizes and where they are operating at and

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