Search Results for: Stress

Episode 21: Situational awareness lessons shared by a first responder struck by a car

Leave a Comment / Close Call, Competency, Decision Making, Emotions, Firefighter Situational Awareness, Human Factors, Personal Protective Equipment, Risk Assessment, Safety, SAMatters Radio, Situational awareness, Size Up, Stress, Training, Tunneled Senses /

On this episode I interview Sean Balantic. After serving 6 years active duty as a United States Marine, Sean served as a federal firefighter prior to being employed by the Rochester, New York Fire Department where he has served for almost 7 years. Sean is assigned as a firefighter on Truck 3. In this interview, […]

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Episode 19: Situational awareness lessons from a first responder shot in the face

Leave a Comment / Attention Management, Close Call, Competency, Decision Making, Emotions, Fear, Human Behavior, Human Factors, Intuition, Neuroscience, Safety, SAMatters Radio, Situational awareness, Standard Operating Procedures/Guidelines, Stress, Teamwork, Training /

This close call survival story is an amazing interview with Okaloosa County Sheriff Investigator Steven Hough. This episode retells the story of a first responder shot in the face by an assailant during a standoff. He will share with you what happened as the suspect, armed with an assault rifle, charged the vehicle Investigator Hough and

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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 /

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 /

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 13 – Training for Failure

Leave a Comment / Decision Making, Emotions, Fear, Firefighter Situational Awareness, Human Behavior, Human Factors, Neuroscience, Safety, SAMatters Radio, Situational awareness, Training /

  In the feature segment, we’ll talk about training for failure, how it happens and I’ll offer some advice on how to overcome it. I’ll also include some discussion questions you can have among your members about training and whether there may be opportunities for improvement. And we’ll share a near-miss report where a crew

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Radio Communications is Essential to Situational Awareness

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

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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Mission Myopia: A situational awareness barrier

Leave a Comment / Attention Management, Complacency, Crew Resource Management, Decision Making, Firefighter Situational Awareness, Human Factors, Repetition, Risk Assessment, Safety, Simulation, Situational awareness, Size Up, Stress, Tacit Knowledge, Training, Tunneled Senses /

Every emergency scene operation should begin with determining the mission (sometimes called strategy) and setting task-level goals (sometimes called tactics). Strategy and tactics establish what is to be done and how it is to be done. For example, at a structure fire, arriving responders are trained to conduct search and rescue operations and to extinguish

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Tacit knowledge and situational awareness

2 Comments / Attention Management, Competency, Decision Making, Human Factors, Neuroscience, Repetition, Safety, Situational awareness, Tacit Knowledge /

While conducting research on how decisions are made during high consequence events I came across a term I’d never heard before – “tacit knowledge.” Once I learned what it was it quickly became evident that I possessed it… and I didn’t know it. In fact, every first responder who has developed expert-level knowledge and skills

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Station Alerting Noise Can Impact Situational Awareness

Leave a Comment / Auditory exclusion, Emotions, Fear, Human Behavior, Human Factors, Safety, Situational awareness, Technology, Tunneled Senses /

Noise can erode situational awareness in many ways. Loud noises, soft noises, lots of noise, odd noises, familiar noises, annoying noises… all noise can present challenges. In this article, I want to explore some of the challenges first responders face in a noisy environment and I’d like to share my personal example of how noise

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