SAMatters Radio

Firefighter Near Miss Reporting System

Contact Rich Gasaway

Support@RichGasaway.com

612-548-4424

SAM 079 | The Overconfident Incompetent Oct 27, 2015

Show notes

This discussion includes the four steps in the progression of competency:

Step 1: Unconscious incompetence – being unaware of what you do not know.

Step 2: Conscious incompetence – being aware of how much you do not know.

Step 3: Conscious competence – being aware of how much you know.

Step 4: Unconscious competence – being unaware of how much you know.

You will also be introduced to the Dunning-Kruger Effect. In 1999, two professors at Cornell University conducted a series of experiments and published their findings in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. What they uncovered is a cognitive bias where unskilled people suffer from the illusion of having superior skills and knowledge.

Our sponsor:

Midwest Fire MidwestFire.com

Spectrum Aeromed

Spectrum-Aeromed.com

Intro music

Safety Dance (1982)

Men Without Hats

GMC - Virgin Records

Situational Awareness Matters! website

Firefighter Near Miss Reporting System

Contact Rich Gasaway

Support@RichGasaway.com

612-548-4424

SAM 078 | Begin with the end in mind Oct 20, 2015

Show notes

One of the essential components of well-developed situational awareness is being able to accurately predict the future. This prediction should be made during the initial scene size up and then it should be updated often as the incident progresses.

In this episode, the need to begin with the end in mind will be explored and tips will be provided for how to improve outcome predictions.

Our sponsor:

Midwest Fire MidwestFire.com

Intro music

Safety Dance (1982)

Men Without Hats

GMC - Virgin Records

Situational Awareness Matters! website

Firefighter Near Miss Reporting System

Contact Rich Gasaway

Support@RichGasaway.com

612-548-4424

SAM 077 | Rewarding undesirable behaviors Oct 13, 2015

Show notes

As it relates to first responders operating in emergency situations, their behaviors can be classified into one of two categories: Desired and undesired. Desired behaviors are those rooted in safety and best practices. Hopefully these are the behaviors taught during basic training and reinforced during on-going training and promoted during emergency responses. Undesired behaviors are those rooted in unsafe behaviors and practices. These can be taught in training or can develop over time as a result of drifting away from best practices.

Behaviors are encouraged or discouraged with reinforcement. Reinforcement can be positive (i.e., providing something desirable or withholding something undesired) or negative (i.e., withholding something desired or providing something undesired).

Behaviors (both positive and negative) are influenced by reinforcement (both positive and negative). Let me provide you with a few examples of how these concepts marry up.

Positive reinforcement of desired behavior: A first responder performs tasks safely and consistent with best practices and is publicly acknowledged and recognized by a supervisor for the behavior.

Negative reinforcement of undesired behavior: A first responder performs tasks that are unsafe and inconsistent with best practices and is privately counseled with a warning that continuing the undesired behavior will result in a punitive consequence.

Negative reinforcement of desired behavior: A first responder performs tasks safely and consistent with best practices and is admonished or ridiculed by a supervisor for performing the task with a primary consideration for personal safety.

Positive reinforcement of undesired behavior: A first responder performs a task that is unsafe and inconsistent with best practices and a supervisor who is aware of the behavior fails to address it.

Our sponsor:

Midwest Fire MidwestFire.com

Intro music

Safety Dance (1982)

Men Without Hats

GMC - Virgin Records

Situational Awareness Matters! website

Firefighter Near Miss Reporting System

Contact Rich Gasaway

Support@RichGasaway.com

612-548-4424

SAM 076 | Ontario Fire Service Critical Incident Initiative Oct 06, 2015

Show notes

The Ontario Fire Service Critical Incident Initiative was formed when training officers in the province realized that, armed with accurate and timely information about critical incidents, they could use this data to drive training to improve firefighter safety.

Currently in the province there is no formal agency whose charge is to capture and share this information with the fire service. While investigations have been completed on many critical incidents, assess to the data has been difficult as Provincial agencies have been slow to share the findings with the fire service. Not only can this lead to frustration, it can also lead to misinformation being shared.

And while the training officers of Ontario can access and use near-miss and line-of-duty death reports from the United States, it is their belief that while there may be some similarities, there are just as likely some unique aspects about critical fire incidents in the Province.

However, absent the access to data, they cannot confirm their suspicions and lack the data to drive changes in training.

During this conversation, recorded on the campus of the Ontario Fire College, we discuss their vision for creating a system to gather and share information from critical incidents in Ontario.

Our sponsor:

Midwest Fire MidwestFire.com

Intro music

Safety Dance (1982)

Men Without Hats

GMC - Virgin Records

Guest Contact Information

Brent Thomas

Assistant Chief

Orillia Fire Department

705-325-5889

bthomas2orillia.ca

Steve MacInnis Training Director

Kitchener Fire Department 519-741-2200 x5527

Stephen.macinnis@kitchener.ca

Richard Craibbe Chief Training Officer

Town of Oakville

905-845-6601

Richard.craibbe@oakville.ca

Ontario Association of Fire Training Officers http://www.firetraining.ca

Twitter/SafetyBluePrint

www.TheSafetyBlueprint.com

Situational Awareness Matters! website

Firefighter Near Miss Reporting System

Contact Rich Gasaway

Support@RichGasaway.com

612-548-4424

SAM 075 | Interview with Personal Safety Expert Shawn Rafferty Sep 29, 2015

Show notes

Today’s guest is Shawn Rafferty, and expert on how to help people be more aware of their surroundings and how to prevent themselves from become a victim of violent acts.

In light of recent events where members of the first responder community have been targeted for acts of violence, I thought this would be a great topic to discuss.

However, since it’s not, explicitly, my area of knowledge (personal protection), I brought in the expert.

Shawn Rafferty’s background includes having worked as a:

U.S. Marine
Corrections officer
Police officer
Force protection officer
Security consultant
Protective security specialist
Martial arts instructor
Firearms instructor
Federal agent

Shawn is married with 2 children. Son is 8 years old and daughter is 20 months old. His wife is from Malaysia and is a Major in the active Army National Guard. Currently they reside in Fort Leavenworth, Kansas while his wife attends the Command General Staff College.

Our sponsor:

Midwest Fire MidwestFire.com

Intro music

Safety Dance (1982)

Men Without Hats

GMC - Virgin Records

Guest Contact Information

Shawn Rafferty

Shawn@TheSafetyBlueprint.com Facebook.com/safetyblueprint Twitter/SafetyBluePrint

www.TheSafetyBlueprint.com

Situational Awareness Matters! website

Firefighter Near Miss Reporting System

Contact Rich Gasaway

Support@RichGasaway.com

612-548-4424

SAM 074 | Creating the Thinking Firefighter Sep 22, 2015

Show notes

In this episode, I discuss how to create thinking firefighters and share powerful examples of how our training may be a set-up for failure not because of poor instruction.

Rather, because instructors have not been taught the art and science of decision making on the drill ground. The focus is nearly always in the action of firefighting without consideration for the decision making that should precede the action.

Our sponsor:

Midwest Fire MidwestFire.com

Intro music

Safety Dance (1982)

Men Without Hats

GMC - Virgin Records

Situational Awareness Matters! website

Firefighter Near Miss Reporting System

Contact Rich Gasaway

Support@RichGasaway.com

612-548-4424

SAM 073 | Ryan Pennington on Hoarder Home Fires Sep 15, 2015

Show notes

The latest Book from Ryan Pennington, Hoarder Homes: Pile of Hazards for Firefighters is a culmination of three years of research into fires that occur inside homes filled with large amounts of belongings. Compulsive Hoarding Disorder is a psychological mental condition that affects between 2-5% of adults. With the number of afflicted growing so is the chances of firefighters having to deal with this issue.

The book covers:

· Introduction to Compulsive Hoarding Disorder

· Dangers faced by firefighters

· Identifying and Pre-Planning hoarding

· Introduced to a new name for hoarding

· Offensive Fire attack

· Defensive attack

· Searching in Hoarding conditions

· Overhauling

· Special additional chapter covers EMS response in Hoarding Conditions.

Our sponsor:

Midwest Fire MidwestFire.com

Intro music

Safety Dance (1982)

Men Without Hats

GMC - Virgin Records

Guest contact information:

Ryan Pennington

Jumpseatviews@iCloud.com

Situational Awareness Matters! website

www.SAMatters.com

Firefighter Near Miss Reporting System

Contact Rich Gasaway

www.RichGasaway.com

Support@RichGasaway.com

612-548-4424

SAM 072 | The dispatcher's role in forming situational awareness Sep 08, 2015

Show notes

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 information I shared with them wasn’t always accurate – like I was giving them misinformation on purpose.

Second, in my situational awareness classes I often hear the same criticism of communications specialists I endured almost 30 years ago. I would like to offer some perspective on communications specialists and the critical role they can play in forming and maintaining situational awareness for responders.

Our sponsor:

Midwest Fire MidwestFire.com

Intro music

Safety Dance (1982)

Men Without Hats

GMC - Virgin Records

Situational Awareness Matters! website

www.SAMatters.com

Firefighter Near Miss Reporting System

Contact Rich Gasaway

www.RichGasaway.com

Support@RichGasaway.com

612-548-4424

SAM 071 | Why does situational awareness matter? Sep 01, 2015

Show notes

This episode is a recording on an interview conducted by Adam Farrar, Fire Chief in Wadesville, Indiana. Chief Farrar’s department hosted a full-day SAMatters Tour stop in August which was the third time Chief Farrar had attended a program.

Inspired by the message, Adam decided to write a research paper on the topic for one of his college classes and interviewed Dr. Gasaway on the origins of SAMatters, the definition of SA and the top 10 most challenging SA barriers.

Our sponsor:

Midwest Fire MidwestFire.com

Intro music

Safety Dance (1982)

Men Without Hats

GMC - Virgin Records

Situational Awareness Matters! website

www.SAMatters.com

Firefighter Near Miss Reporting System