Hazard Perception in Emergency Service Responders

Date
2014-05-02
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Abstract
Collisions may be particularly risky for emergency medical services (EMS) and the patients they transport. Because of experiences with lights-and-sirens operations, EMS may have advantages in their perception of hazards, avoidance of which is critical to driving safety. To examine if differences in hazard perception between EMS and civilians exist, 29 EMS professionals, and 24 civilians were recruited to participate in a study of hazard perception. The dynamic hazard perception test assessed participants’ response latency to hazards in a series of 95 driving videos. There were no differences in simple reaction time between the groups. Compared to civilians, EMS demonstrated an advantage in hazard perception reaction time (HPRT). Within the profession, experienced EMS did not reveal faster HPRT compared to their less-experienced counterparts. Overall, these findings suggest that differences in experience due to emergency vehicle operations may have improved EMS hazard perception latency.
Description
Keywords
Psychology--Cognitive, Psychology--Experimental
Citation
Johnston, K. A. (2014). Hazard Perception in Emergency Service Responders (Master's thesis, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada). Retrieved from https://prism.ucalgary.ca. doi:10.11575/PRISM/26340