Communications Archives - Page 26 of 26 - Situational Awareness Matters!™

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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Radio Communications is Essential to Situational Awareness

Communications, Situational awareness, Standard Operating Procedures/Guidelines, Training / Rich Gasaway

I was invited to be an observer at a regional police tactical training exercise. The program was a multi-day event, starting with some classroom training and culminating in a series of simulations using mock weapons, flash-bangs and actors. The one thing that readily stood out to me was the tactical teams were not using radios

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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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Staffing for the Mayday/Rapid Intervention

6 Comments / Attention Management, Auditory exclusion, Communications, Crew Resource Management, Decision Making, Firefighter Situational Awareness, Mayday and RIT, Safety, Situational awareness, Teamwork, Workload Management / Rich Gasaway

I recently received an inquiry from an SAMatters member asking my thoughts on front loading command personnel in the event of a Mayday. Specifically, the reader wanted to know if I thought it was a good idea. I could answer the question in one word: Yes. However, I like to help my readers build deep

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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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Fireground Safety: Mistakes and Best Practices

Communications, Culture, Decision Making, Firefighter Situational Awareness, Gasaway Consulting Group, Safety, Situational awareness, Teamwork / Rich Gasaway

Utah Winter Fire School: 117 more first responders are now “in the loop!” On January 13 I presented two sessions of Fireground Safety: Mistakes and Best Practices at the 2012 Utah Winter Fire School. There were 117 attendees in the two programs. The programs focused on 10 common mistakes and 10 best practices to fix

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You Can’t Handle The Truth!

2 Comments / Attention Management, Communications, Decision Making, Firefighter Situational Awareness, Neuroscience, Safety, Situational awareness / Rich Gasaway

If you have attended one of my new Mental Management of Emergencies programs you have learned how stress is a game-changer when it comes to firefighter situational awareness and decision making quality. Most basic training programs focus on developing cognitive knowledge and physical skills. Far less address the impact of stress on situational awareness and

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