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situational awareness

Episode 72: The dispatcher’s role in forming first responder situational awareness

  Some of the least appreciated members of the emergency response team are the communications specialists (in some venues, termed dispatchers). How do I know this? First, I served as a communications specialist (my job title was dispatcher) early in my career and I was routinely subjected to criticism and ridicule from responders because the […]

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Episode 71: Why does situational awareness matter?

  In this episode we explore the origins of Situational Awareness Matters and explain why situational awareness is so important for individuals and teams who work in high risk, high consequence environments. We also reveal the top ten situational awareness barriers for first responders. Length: 56 minutes click the YouTube icon to listen _____________________________________________________ If

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Episode 70: Your brain on drugs: The impact of acute stress on decision making

    This episode discusses some of the ill effects that can impact situational awareness and decision making as a result of stress. Length: 30 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

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Episode 69: Learning from Failure

    While it is important to train in ways that reinforce best practices and successful outcomes, there is something to be said for training that results in failure. This episode explores the notion that out of failure, important lessons are learned. Length: 27 minutes click the YouTube icon to listen     _____________________________________________________ If you

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Episode 68: Teaching Decision Making

  During the Mental Management of Emergencies program we talk about the process of how to develop and maintain situational awareness. And then, we talk about how to use situational awareness as the foundation for decision making.     Length: 32 minutes click the YouTube icon to listen     _____________________________________________________ If you are interested in

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Episode 67: Lieutenant Todd Budd Close Call Survivor Story

Lieutenant Todd Budd, at the time of his close call event was serving as the acting officer on Brownsburg ladder company 131. They were dispatched to assist a neighboring community for a working building fire. The call came in after midnight and their on-duty crew of four responded along with a battalion chief. Length: 72

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Unexpected information can be a barrier to situational awareness

One of the foundations of situational awareness development is being able to make accurate predictions of future events. Making (accurate) predictions is a fairly complex neurological process that relies heavily on gathering information, comprehending the meaning of the information, tapping into your stored knowledge of past experiences, trusting your intuition and using your imagination to

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Episode 65: Conducting the 360 size-up

    Situational awareness starts with capturing clues and cues in your environment (perception) and then understanding what those clues and cues mean (comprehension). At a structure fire, the process of capturing information should involve a complete 360-degree size-up of the scene. Many departments have policies that stipulate the completion of a 360-degree size up. Yet,

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