Researchers seek UK incident commanders for emergency decision-making study

Natural Hazards Research Australia is Australia’s national research centre for natural hazard resilience and disaster risk reduction.

Professor Rhona Flin of Robert Gordon University and Cardiff University’s Dr Philip Butler are conducting the UK arm of the project as part of an international research team led by Assistant Professor Chris Bearman and Dr Peter Hayes from Central Queensland University.

The study seeks incident commanders from every work and shift pattern (including volunteers and control centre commanders) working at all levels of command in ambulance, fire and rescue and police services to provide input on current practices in operational decision-making.

This research will aid in the understanding of how people currently make decisions, the tools they use, and the gaps in training and organisational doctrine on decision making.

The study is split into two parts. Part 1 is an anonymous online survey to provide a snapshot of current decision-making practice in incident command.

Part 2 is an optional in-depth interview to further understanding of issues such as:

• How practitioners learn and develop their operational decision-making skills;
• Possible gaps in decision-making training
• Use of decision-making tools and frameworks;
• Challenges and opportunities to improve operational decision-making;
• Alignment of organisational guidance to operational decision-making practice; and
• The degree to which pressures (such as stress and fatigue) may undermine operational decision-making.

A central feature of this project is to gain a perspective on operational decision-making of UK incident commanders that will contribute toward an analysis of the current practice and future requirements of such decision-making in support of the research aims:

• To develop a set of prototype training and learning products for Australian emergency management organisations that support the needs of decision-makers in a variety of operational environments; and
• To develop a skills acquisition framework to assist such organisations, teams and individuals to better understand operational decision-making.

The online survey and interview will remain open until the end of September.

The National Police Chiefs’ Council, National Fire Chiefs Council and the Association of Ambulance Chief Executives are encouraging UK emergency service incident commanders to participate in this study.

To take part, visit https://cqu.syd1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_0UqLE3lJHiZqsR0