What is Situational Awareness and Why Does it Matter?

Most first responders know, intuitively, that strong situational awareness is an important aspect of safety. However, many do not understand what situational awareness is, how it is developed and how it can erode while working in high risk, high consequence environments. Yet, situational awareness – and the barriers that flaw awareness – are consistently identified as contributing factors in near-miss and casualty reports.

This program provides you with a working definition for situational awareness and explains how it is developed. Specific examples of barriers that can erode awareness will be discussed, including: Sensory conflict, pre-arrival lens, confirmation bias, tunnel vision, task fixation, mission myopia, multitasking, short-term memory overload, confabulation, auditory exclusion, time distortion and more.