Situational awareness Flashcards
Situational awareness
There are 3 stages of situational awareness:
G.U.A
Information Gathering:
- Comms (with other teams / specialists on scene / people on scene)
- Surveying the scene (information from seeing, hearing, touching),
- SSRI (sources from pre-planning)
Understanding information:
- Experience of same or similar premise or locations
- Experience of same or similar situations
- Expectations
- Mental models: Combinations of cues or pieces of information may activate previous metal models + link into previous actions or responses.
Anticipation:
Incident commanders should be aware that they use their understanding of the situation to anticipate what is likely to happen next. For example, how the situation might develop and the consequences of their actions. It is vital that their interpretation reflects the actual situation as accurately as possible.
Situational awareness
Effective situational awareness
Effective situational awareness ensures that the interpretation reflects the actual situation.
This is critical for making appropriate decisions and predicting the likely effects of activities. The following may assist effective situational awareness:
C.R.A.M.S
Clear Briefing - Clear, accurate and timely briefings to and from the incident commander will ensure people share up-to-date information.
Minimising distractions during critical tasks - This may help reduce demands on mental processing capacity. Effective organisation at an incident can assist with reducing distractions.
Appropriate spans of control - Can reduce the likelyhood of brcoming overloaded with information by delgating responsibility for certain areas or tasks. Delegation allows the IC to maintain an overall view of the situation. Maintaining good lines of communication is vital
Regular review - IC should regularly compare their mental picture with cues and information from the current situation to ensure their situational awareness remains accurate.
Self-awareness of stress and fatigue - The IC should be aware of the signs and symptoms of excessive stress. Stress and fatigue may impair their situational awareness and they should take appropriate action to manage impact on people.
Situational awareness
Factors that affect situational awareness
Incident commanders should be aware that some factors which might affect situational awareness are:
C.M. I.F. S.T.A.L.L
Confirmation bias
Under some circumstances, attention is focused on information that confirms a current interpretation of the incident, neglecting information that does not fit.
Mental model
The wrong mental model may be activating; the correct mental model may be activating but it may be a poorly formed mental model; there might not be a relevant mental model; or there may be too much reliance on some features of the model.
Information overload
Can be overwhelming. It can take up mental processing capacity, leaving less to focus on and understand the wider situation.
Fatigue
Can reduce mental processing capacity. As with the effects of stress, this can reduce the capacity available for processing and making sense of information.
Stress
Anxiety and stress take up part of a person’s mental processing capacity. They can distract attention from the situation. They can also reduce available capacity for focusing on and understanding information. Neglecting important information or not processing it properly may lead to an inaccurate mental picture of the situation.
Tunnel vision
Under some circumstances attention may become unduly focused on some elements of the situation, rather than looking at the incident as a whole. This is known as tunnel vision.
Automatic actions
A cue might automatically cause a certain response. Automatically responding to an element of the situation may not always fit with the required overall incident response.
Location of incident command point
Its siting and the potential scale of the incident scene may prevent visual cues from the incident being seen.
Limitations of human perceptual systems
Human perceptual and memory systems are not infallible. A strong focus on one part of the situation, or element of the environment, can lead to other sources of information being neglected or missed.
Situational awareness
Remote situational awareness
There may be people involved in making decisions who are not at the scene of operations. They may be at a location such as a remote tactical command point or strategic co-ordination centre. The reliability of elements contributing to their situational awareness can vary. They should question any assumptions they might have and constantly review the accuracy of their situational awareness. Where appropriate, they may wish to visit the scene to confirm the accuracy of their mental picture, taking care to avoid creating a command gap. If available, they may choose to consider using other means such as a live video feed.
Situational awareness
Shared situational awareness
Resolving an incident involves the efforts of many people and multiple teams. This might include a number of fire and rescue service personnel as well as other agencies. For any team to work effectively they need to have a common interpretation of events, or shared situational awareness. Incident commanders should be aware that a dynamic environment can lead team members to form different impressions of the incident. This can happen without teams being aware of it. It can cause conflict and make it more challenging to make decisions.
Situational awareness
Shared information gathering
It is not necessary for all personnel to be aware of all of the information about an incident. Having too much information may result in information overload which could reduce an individual’s ability to deliver tasks. Good shared situational awareness will mean that team members have the information necessary for their role and have a common view of the situation.
Teams are exposed to different areas of working and may be assigned specific tasks. This means that the direct information they have, such as what they can see and hear, is limited to their area of work.
Situational awareness
Shared understanding
Team members will interpret information in a particular way based on their individual understanding. A team with good shared situational awareness will have a similar knowledge of the status of the goals they are working towards. They will also understand the status of the goals of other team members in relation to the operational plan. They should also have a common understanding of how their actions may affect others and the goals they are trying to achieve.
Situational awareness
Shared expectations
The team should have a common understanding of what they expect to happen when they are carrying out activities. They should have a similar understanding of how their own and other people’s roles work. For example, they should share the same expectations of their roles in accomplishing the task, the nature of the task, and the equipment they have. This can also improve the team’s performance as they have similar expectations of each other’s contribution in relation to the operational plan, and the likely impact of each other’s activities. It can improve their ability to adapt to changing demands and to co-ordinate efforts. It will help individuals to anticipate the needs of both the task and other team members.
