Near-Miss Listen & Learn: Decision Making Under Fire and CRM

How do we know what to do when faced with a situation? Experts in human behavior under stress tell us that emergency responders develop a cognition process that allows them to recall previous experiences to speed up the decision making process.

In this edition of the Near-Miss Listen and Learn podcast, we'll explore four reports from www.firefighternearmiss.com. Two of the reports have less than favorable outcomes because of decisions made and two have favorable outcomes.

How does one follow the path to favorable outcomes? Acquiring a strong base of experience, knowledge, and information is one way. But who can go to "all the fires" to build up their experience base?

Other industries that have people making decisions on a stopwatch have learned that experience bases can be enhanced through the transfer of knowledge and information. Case studies, table top exercises and informal kitchen or tailboard chats all contribute to an emergency responder's decision making capability.

One feature of www.firefighternearmiss.com is the freedom for report readers to not only carry away lessons passed on from the reporter, but to form their own additional knowledge sets to improve their decision making skills.