Modeling Psychosocial Decision Making in Emergency Operations Centres

Abstract

The researchers compared the effectiveness of two decision models for modeling decision making in Emergency Operations Centers (EOCs): Klein's Recognition Primed Decision (RPD) model and Gladwin's Ethnographic Decision Tree Model (EDTM). The focus was on decisions that affect the psychological and social well-being of responders and community members. Communities of EOC personnel participated in a simulated emergency event, followed by an interview and/or focus group. Analysis of the decision-making processes during the simulation revealed that most operational decisions were made intuitively, with expertise, and best modeled by RPD. When the decisions involved issues for which EOC personnel had less experience (e.g., psychosocial issues), the decision-making approach shifted from a fast intuitive style to a more deliberative style. In some cases, EOC staff requested additional information before making a decision. With no formalized feedback loops, decisions were delayed or not made at all, leaving community residents and EOC personnel without psychosocial services for unnecessary lengths of time. The researchers found the RPD model to be most useful in its potential for identifying areas where future training (i.e., simulated exercises) and education (i.e., knowledge transfer) could be offered to EOC personnel to improve the provision of psychosocial services.

Sense-making in a Simulated Emergency Operations Centre

“…During training for the EOC participants were told that first responders were the highest priority for the EOC; however, no participant reported that event in a sitrep. This is in accord with the findings of Javor et al (2014), who found that even trained EOC personnel and first responders also neglected to acknowledge this event, partially due to the lack of dedicated psychosocial support and training for EOC staff managing disaster events.…”

“…One study involved a hospital emergency department staff, consisting of nurses, technicians, emergency medicine residents, and attending physicians and focused on group dynamics rather than individual roles (Shapiro et al 2004). Another, more recent study of EOC behaviors (Javor et al 2014) used a simulation of an extreme winter storm in a fictional city called Denton to study psychosocial decision-making in EOCs in crises. In particular, the emphasis of their experimental manipulation was upon the ability of team members to cope with behavioral issues that may emerge because of stress in the EOC.…”

“…The participants in this simulation were trained members of the emergency operations community, including many first responders as well as trained EOC personnel. Javor et al (2014) reported that most operational decisions were made intuitively based on previous experience and training. When the decisions involved issues where EOC personnel had less experience (e.g., psychosocial issues), however, a more deliberative style was used.…”

“…As a result, sometimes decisions regarding the deployment of important psychosocial services to the community were delayed or not made at all. This simulation study used an adaptation of the simulation framework developed and validated by Javor et al (2014). It developed a shorter version of that simulation more suited for laboratory experiments.…”

“…and limited resources (Javor et al 2014). The EOC place facilitates interpersonal communication, technically supported information exchange, and decision-making among the representatives of different agencies, who are in turn communicating with their personnel either at the scene of an emergency or elsewhere in their respective organizations (Kendra and Wachtendorf 2003).…”