Human Factors Archives - Situational Awareness Matters!™

Imagination Can Influence Situational Awareness

1 Comment / Article, Attention Management, Confabulation, Decision Making, Firefighter Situational Awareness, Human Behavior, Human Factors, Neuroscience, Safety, Situational awareness / Rich Gasaway

If I were to tell you that on an emergency scene it is possible for you to use X-Ray vision, you’d probably think I’ve been watching too many Superman movies. But it is possible for you to look right through a solid object on an emergency scene and see what’s beyond it. Seriously! Read on…

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Flawed Expectations of Personnel Can Impact Situational Awareness

Leave a Comment / Anger, Article, Attention Management, Checklists, Crew Resource Management, Decision Making, Distractions and Interruptions, Emotions, Firefighter Situational Awareness, Human Behavior, Human Factors, Leadership, Neuroscience, Risk Assessment, Safety, Situational awareness, Tacit Knowledge, Teamwork / Rich Gasaway

You develop situational awareness by using your senses to capture information (Level 1 situational awareness). Those clues and cues are then processed into understanding (Level 2 situational awareness). Once you understand what is happening, you can then make predictions of future events (Level 3 situational awareness). This article focuses on the third level of situational

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Mayday Radio Channel

11 Comments / Article, Communications, Crew Resource Management, Decision Making, Equipment, Firefighter Situational Awareness, Human Behavior, Human Factors, Mayday and RIT, Safety, Situational awareness, Situational Readiness, Standard Operating Procedures/Guidelines, Stress, Teamwork, Training / Rich Gasaway

I recently was contacted by a fire officer asking whether their mayday procedure should include a provision for a dedicated mayday channel for the distressed crew to transmit their post-mayday traffic on. This is a question I’ve been asked often enough that I want to dedicate an article to the topic of mayday communications procedures.

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Giving L.I.P. to R.I.T.

4 Comments / Accountability, Close Call, Competency, Complacency, Crew Resource Management, Decision Making, Expectations, Human Factors, Incompetence, Line of Duty Death, Personal Protective Equipment, Safety / Rich Gasaway

I would like to share the results of a series of informal polls I have been conducting over a several year period. I conducted these surveys during my Firefighter Safety: Mistakes & Best Practices programs. Roughly 7,000 first responders have participated. There is nothing scientific about this survey or the results. It was merely

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Another False Alarm: A Tale of Complacency

5 Comments / Complacency, Crew Resource Management, Culture, Decision Making, Firefighter Situational Awareness, Human Behavior, Human Factors, Incompetence, Safety, SAMatters Radio, Situational awareness / Rich Gasaway

Complacency is a big deal for first responders because it impacts your situational awareness on multiple levels. I would like to give every responder the benefit of the doubt that if or when they have found him or herself being complacent that it wasn’t happening on purpose. In other words, I hope every responder desires

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Expectations can Impact Situational Awareness

2 Comments / Accountability, Article, Competency, Culture, Decision Making, Ego, Emotions, Fear, Firefighter Situational Awareness, Human Factors, Safety, Situational awareness, Stress / Rich Gasaway

Towering Inferno… Backdraft… Ladder 49… Emergency… Adam 12… Dragnet… Rescue Me… Chicago Fire… Hawaii Five O … Love them or hate them, movies and television influence perceptions and create expectations three ways: First, they influence citizen perceptions of emergency service providers and create certain performance expectations. Second, they influence first responders’ perceptions of themselves and

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The Firefighter Behavioral Health Alliance – 406

Leave a Comment / Accountability, Attention Management, Attitude, Bravado, Command Support, Communications, Competency, Complacency, Crew Resource Management, Culture, Decision Making, Denial, Ego, Emotions, Fatigue, Fear, Firefighter Situational Awareness, Frustration, Gut Feeling, Habits, Human Behavior, Human Error, Human Factors, Illness, Intuition, Invincible, Judgment, Leadership, Line of Duty Death, Mental Models, Mindfulness, Miscommunications, Mission, Near Miss, Neuroscience, Overload, Overwhelm, Perception, Perception Of Reality, Physical Fitness, Prediction, Preoccupation, Pressure, Risk, Risk Management, Safety, SAMatters Radio, Shared Mental Models, Situational awareness, Situational Readiness, Size Up, Staffing, Standard Operating Procedures/Guidelines, Stress, Task Fixation, Task Saturation, Teamwork, Training, understaffing, Workload Management / Rich Gasaway

In this interview, Dr. Gasaway talks with Jeff Dill about the Firefighter Behavioral Health Alliance and their work to reduce firefighter suicides. Description In 2010, Jeff Dill founded Firefighter Behavioral Health Alliance (FBHA). And since 2021, Jeff has served full time as the Behavioral Health Administrator for Las Vegas Fire & Rescue

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The Minnesota Hometown Heroes Assistance Program – 405

Leave a Comment / Assumptions, Attitude, Bravado, Close Call, Command Support, Communications, Complacency, Crew Resource Management, Culture, Decision Making, Defiance, Denial, Disoriented, Ego, Emotions, Expectations, Experience, Fatigue, Fear, Firefighter Situational Awareness, Frustration, Gut Feeling, Habits, Human Behavior, Human Error, Human Factors, Illness, Intuition, Invincible, Judgment, Leadership, Line of Duty Death, Lost Focus, Mayday, Mayday and RIT, Mental Models, Mindfulness, Miscommunications, Mission, Mission Myopia, Near Miss, Neuroscience, Optimism, Overload, Overwhelm, Perception, Perception Of Reality, Physical Fitness, Prediction, Preoccupation, Pressure, Risk, Risk Assessment, Safety, SAMatters Radio, Selective Listening, Shared Mental Models, Situational awareness, Situational Readiness, Size Up, Staffing, Standard Operating Procedures/Guidelines, Stress, Teamwork, Training, Understanding, Vigilance / Rich Gasaway

In this interview, Dr. Gasaway talks with George Esbensen, President of the Minnesota Firefighter Initiative (MnFIRE) about the Hometown Heroes Assistance Program. During his 32 years in the fire service, George Esbensen served in many roles, from firefighter to chief. Today, he volunteers as Board President of the Minnesota Firefighter Initiative (MnFIRE),

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The NIOSH 5 and Leadership – The Jeff Snider Interview – 403

Leave a Comment / Accountability, Assumptions, Attention Management, Attitude, Benchmarks, Biases, Bravado, Building Construction, Checklists, Close Call, Communications, Competency, Complacency, Crew Resource Management, Culture, Decision Making, Ego, Emotions, Expectations, Experience, Explicit Knowledge, Fear, Firefighter Situational Awareness, Habits, Human Behavior, Human Error, Human Factors, Incompetence, Independent Goal Setting - Freelancing, Leadership, Line of Duty Death, Mindfulness, Miscommunications, Mission, Multitasking, Near Miss, Over Confident, Perception, Perception Of Reality, Personnel location, Pre Arrival Lens, Prediction, Pressure, Progress Reports, Radios, Risk Assessment, Risk Management, Routines, Safety, SAMatters Radio, Shared Mental Models, Situational awareness, Situational Readiness, Size Up, Staffing, Standard Operating Procedures/Guidelines, Stress, Teamwork, Technology, Training, Workload Management / Rich Gasaway

In this interview, Dr. Gasaway talks with Jeff Snider about the NIOSH 5 – or the five most often cited contributing factors in Line of Duty death investigations and lessons for leader Jeff Snider has served with the Canadian military as a Special Forces Operator (3 CDO), a Correctional Officer at a maximum-security facility,

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Conducting a LODD After Action Review: Part 2 – 402

Leave a Comment / Accountability, Anger, Assertiveness, Assumptions, Attention Management, Attitude, Automatic Action, Automatic Action, Biases, Building Construction, Command Location, Command Presence, Command Support, Communications, Competency, Complacency, Comprehension, Confusion, Crew Resource Management, Culture, Decision Making, Defiance, Denial, Disoriented, Emotions, Equipment, Expectations, Experience, Firefighter Situational Awareness, Goals, Habits, Human Behavior, Human Error, Human Factors, Intuition, Judgment, Leadership, Line of Duty Death, Lost Focus, Mayday, Mayday and RIT, Mindfulness, Miscommunications, Mission, Mission Myopia, Optimism, Overwhelm, Perception, Perception Of Reality, Personal Protective Equipment, Personnel location, Prediction, Pressure, Progress Reports, Radios, Risk, Risk Assessment, Risk Management, Safety, SAMatters Radio, Situational awareness, Situational Readiness, Size Up, Staffing, Standard Operating Procedures/Guidelines, Stress, Task Fixation, Teamwork, Training, understaffing, Vigilance, Workload Management / Rich Gasaway

This episode is part 2 of a 2-part interview where Dr. Gasaway talks with retired Philadelphia Deputy Chief Vince Mulray and Battalion Chief Bobby Kennedy about conducting a Line-of-Duty After Action Review following the death of Lieutenant Matthew LeTourneau on January 6, 2018. After Action Review-Line of Duty Death On January 06, 2018, Lt.

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