Stress Archives - Page 10 of 16 - Situational Awareness Matters!™

Understanding Stress – Part 1: The Physical, Chemical and Emotional Impact

4 Comments / Article, Decision Making, Firefighter Situational Awareness, Neuroscience, Safety, Situational awareness, Stress / Rich Gasaway

I field a lot of questions about stress during my programs. I think this is, in part, because of how pervasive stress is in the lives of anyone involved in an emergency situation and the role that stress plays in situational awareness and decision making. So I thought I’d write an article about stress. Well, […]

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Pre-Arrival Lens, Task Fixation, Mission Myopia and Fear (Episode 246)

Leave a Comment / Communications, Confusion, Crew Resource Management, Decision Making, Ego, Emotions, Experience, Fear, Human Factors, Intuition, Mental Models, Mindfulness, Miscommunications, Mission, Mission Myopia, Perception Of Reality, Safety, SAMatters Radio, Selective Listening, Sensory Conflict, Shared Mental Models, Stress, Task Fixation, Task Saturation, Vigilance / Rich Gasaway

In this episode, you get to sit in on a segment of a situational awareness program where Dr. Gasaway discusses four situational awareness barriers. Length: 33 minutes Click the YouTube icon to watch the full VIDEO __________________________________________________ If you are interested in taking your understanding of situational awareness and high-risk decision making to

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Peer Pressure Can Impact Situational Awareness

2 Comments / Article, Communications, Crew Resource Management, Culture, Decision Making, Ego, Fear, Firefighter Situational Awareness, Leadership, Safety, Situational awareness, Stress, Teamwork / Rich Gasaway

The social interaction between coworkers may not be on your mind as you think about situational awareness. But the fact is we are all influenced by our relationships with others. We have an inherent internal desire to be well-liked and respected. We also have a very strong internal drive to avoid embarrassment. These traits of

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Seven Situational Awareness Thieves

5 Comments / Accountability, Article, Attention Management, Complacency, Culture, Decision Making, Distractions and Interruptions, Ego, Firefighter Situational Awareness, Human Behavior, Human Factors, Incompetence, Neuroscience, Safety, Situational awareness, Stress, Task Saturation, Teamwork, Tunneled Senses / Rich Gasaway

Recently I had a video clip shared with me of a residential dwelling fire. The video captures a flashover event. It was reported to me that firefighters were operating inside the structure when it occurred. As I watched the video progress, it was apparent interior conditions were getting worse, the color of the smoke was

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Weather Can Impact Situational Awareness

1 Comment / Article, Attention Management, Communications, Competency, Crew Resource Management, Decision Making, Distractions and Interruptions, Fatigue, Firefighter Situational Awareness, Human Behavior, Human Factors, Information overload, Multitasking, Risk Assessment, Safety, Situational awareness, Stress, Teamwork, Weather / Rich Gasaway

You may recall from earlier discussions that situational awareness is formed by gathering information about what is happening in the environment around you. Then, your brain takes that information and attempts to form an understanding of what it all means. Finally, after understanding what it means, you make predictions of future events. This is a

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Situational Awareness in Hoarder Homes – Guest Post

5 Comments / Article, Building Construction, Decision Making, Firefighter Situational Awareness, Human Behavior, Human Factors, Safety, Situational awareness, Size Up, Stress / Rich Gasaway

Firefighter-Paramedic Ryan Pennington with the Charleston (WV) Fire Department has been conducting extensive research on the epidemic problem of emergencies in hoarder homes. Emergencies including everything from fires to EMS calls to animal hoarding issues – the whole gamut. Ryan has also developed a knock-out program on hoarder home fires. If your jurisdiction is having

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Twelve Ways to Situational Awareness

6 Comments / Article, Communications, Complacency, Culture, Decision Making, Gasaway Consulting Group, Human Factors, Incompetence, Information overload, Safety, Situational awareness, Situational Readiness, Size Up, Staffing, Stress, Teamwork, Training, Workload Management / Rich Gasaway

Ho, Ho, Ho. Merry Christmas everyone! With Thanksgiving day in the past, it is officially the Christmas season! I know everyone’s feeling particularly festive this time of year and I have caught the Christmas spirit in a very situational awareness sort of way. Surely you’ve heard of the “Twelve Days of Christmas.” -You know –

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Episode 234 | The Dirty Dozen – Killer Situational Awareness Barriers

Leave a Comment / Auditory exclusion, Cognitive Memory, Communications, Complacency, Confabulation, Confusion, Decision Making, Distractions and Interruptions, Expectations, Experience, Fear, Gut Feeling, Habits, Hallucinations, Human Behavior, Human Error, Human Factors, Hyper Vigilance, Information overload, Intuition, Judgment, Long-Term Memory, Meta Awareness, Miscommunications, Mission, Mission Myopia, Multitasking, Muscle Memory, Overload, Overwhelm, Perception, Perception Of Reality, Prediction, Pressure, Radios, Repetition, Risk Assessment, Safety, SAMatters Radio, Selective Listening, Sensory Conflict, Shared Mental Models, Short Term Memory, Situational awareness, Size Up, Stress, Tacit Knowledge, Task Fixation, Tunnel Vision, Tunneled Senses, Under Confident, understaffing, Vigilance, Workload Management, Worksheets / Rich Gasaway

This episode discusses some of the most challenging barriers to situational awareness while working in high-risk, high-consequence environments. This is part 2 so if you missed part 1 – Episode 233 – be sure to check it out first and that will help you understand the challenges we are going to discuss here. Length: 36

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Episode 233 | The Process for Developing Situational Awareness

Leave a Comment / Auditory exclusion, Cognitive Memory, Communications, Complacency, Confabulation, Confusion, Decision Making, Distractions and Interruptions, Expectations, Experience, Fear, Gut Feeling, Habits, Hallucinations, Human Behavior, Human Error, Human Factors, Hyper Vigilance, Information overload, Intuition, Judgment, Long-Term Memory, Meta Awareness, Miscommunications, Mission, Mission Myopia, Multitasking, Muscle Memory, Overload, Overwhelm, Perception, Perception Of Reality, Prediction, Pressure, Radios, Repetition, Risk Assessment, Routines, Safety, SAMatters Radio, Selective Listening, Sensory Conflict, Shared Mental Models, Short Term Memory, Situational awareness, Size Up, Stress, Tacit Knowledge, Task Fixation, Tunnel Vision, Tunneled Senses, Under Confident, Vigilance, Workload Management, Worksheets / Rich Gasaway

The episode discusses the process for developing and maintaining situational awareness. We will discuss the foundation, walls and roof of the SA development process. This is part 1 of a 2-part episode. Length: 36 minutes Click the YouTube icon to watch the full VIDEO __________________________________________________ If you are interested in taking

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Episode 231 | Kevin LaChapelle Interview Part 1

Leave a Comment / Accountability, Assumptions, Attention Management, Auditory exclusion, Automatic Action, Building Construction, Close Call, Command Location, Command Presence, Command Support, Communications, Crew Resource Management, Culture, Decision Making, Denial, Disoriented, Emotions, Expectations, Experience, Fatigue, Fear, Habits, Mayday, Mindfulness, Miscommunications, Mission, Personnel location, Pre Arrival Lens, Prediction, Progress Reports, Radios, Response Time Delays, SAMatters Radio, Size Up, Staffing, Standard Operating Procedures/Guidelines, Stress, Teamwork, understaffing / Rich Gasaway

This episode is part 1 of a 2-part interview with Fire Chief Kevin LaChapelle from the Franklin, New Hampshire Fire Department sharing the details of mayday event that occurred in Franklin. Length: 60 minutes Click the YouTube icon to watch the full VIDEO __________________________________________________ If you are interested in taking your

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