Purpose – This paper aims to contribute to a general understanding of mental practice by investigating the utility of and participant reaction to a virtual reality maintenance training among underground coal mine first responders. Design/methodology/approach – Researchers at the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health's Office of Mine Safety and Health Research (OMSHR) developed software to provide opportunities for mine rescue team members to learn to inspect, assemble and test their closed-circuit breathing apparatus and to practice those skills. In total, 31 mine rescue team members utilized OMSHR's BG 4 Benching Trainer software and provided feedback to the development team. After training, participants completed a brief post-training questionnaire, which included demographics, perceived training climate and general training evaluation items. Findings – The results overall indicate a generally positive reaction to and high perceived utility of the BG 4 benching software. In addition, the perceived training climate appears to have an effect on the perceived utility of the mental practice virtual reality game, with benchmen from mines with more positive training climates reporting greater perceived efficacy in the training's ability to prepare trainees for real emergencies. Originality/value – This paper helps to broaden current applications of mental practice and is one of the few empirical investigations into a non-rehabilitation virtual reality extension of mental practice. This paper also contributes to the growing literature advocating for greater usage of accurate and well-informed mental practice techniques, tools and methodologies, especially for occupational populations with limitations on exposure to hands-on training.

Background: Fatigue negatively impacts mineworker health and safety. In this paper, we identify fatigue interventions tested on industrial shiftworkers and explore their effects and the factors that may influence application in an industrial setting such as a mine site. Methods: This review adhered to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) checklist. A structured, systematic search of the literature was conducted to identify relevant studies published between 1980 and 2020. Researchers independently conducted article screening and study quality appraisals against pre-established criteria, and then extracted data and conducted a narrative synthesis of the included studies. Results: Seven intervention studies, out of 1651 articles initially screened, were retained for narrative synthesis. Four studies tested the alerting effects of brightlight treatment, one evaluated the effectiveness of blue-light blocking glasses at improving daytime sleep quality and nighttime vigilance, and two examined whether sleep hygiene and alertness management trainings improved sleep quality or alertness. There was substantial evidence for the use of bright-light treatments to improve night shiftworker alertness, but insufficient evidence to draw conclusions about the effectiveness of blue-light blocking glasses and sleep hygiene and alertness management trainings due to the small number of studies included. Shiftworkers were mostly male and employed in industrial subsectors such as production and manufacturing, oil and gas, and transportation. No mining-specific intervention studies were identified. Conclusions: Future research is needed to identify effective fatigue risk management interventions for the mining industry as well as best practices for implementing these interventions with mineworkers.

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