What is situational awareness and why does it matter to veterinary teams?

Developing ‘situational awareness’ is an essential part of veterinary Human Factors training, but what is situational awareness?

Situational awareness sits at the intersection between clinical and non-clinical skills, and it impacts how we make decisions – often without us realising. Decisions that could mean the difference between positive and negative patient outcomes. Situational awareness is made up of three stages: observation, interpretation, and anticipation.

Observation: Gathering information

The first stage of situational awareness is noticing what is unfolding. To do this, we need to observe and gather information about the patient. This might include mucous membrane colour, pulse and respiratory rate, respiratory effort, abdominal distension, etc.

These important signs might be missed if we become too task-focused, resulting in tunnel vision, or we develop change blindness, where sudden changes in patient parameters go unnoticed. Other challenges at this stage include not being able to detect clinical changes due to unrelated patient factors, such as obesity or aggression, or the information may simply not be available to us – for example, an owner not knowing when their pet ate those bars of dark chocolate.

Interpretation: So what?

The next stage involves the ability to interpret the information we have gathered - what does this mean for the patient?

We use a combination of mental models, pattern recognition, and/or a slower, more systematic approach such as creating a prioritised differential diagnosis list to formulate a diagnosis or narrative of what is going on. We develop thought processes that help us identify when something doesn’t seem right or is different from the expected norm. Challenges at this stage could be misinterpretation due to ineffective communication, cognitive biases, or poor psychological safety resulting in team members not being willing to challenge decisions made by more experienced clinicians.

Anticipation: then what?

The final stage of situational awareness is the ability to use the data gathered and interpreted to think ahead:

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What might happen next?

Is this patient about to crash?

What else could go wrong?

How likely is this?

What can be done to prevent or manage this?

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Challenges at this stage can be related to decision paralysis due to stress, fatigue, or inexperience, or this stage may not be reached due to distractions or interruptions.

How can we develop Situational Awareness?

Improving our clinical skills is one way to develop this – but we also need to develop our understanding of how our minds work when we are fatigued or stressed and what can affect our ability to maintain situational awareness that has nothing to do with our clinical skills.

VetLed’s veterinary simulation training does just that. By using simulated high-pressure clinical scenarios, attendees experience the same levels of stress that they would with real cases back at the practice. The scenarios intentionally trigger the use of non-clinical skills that help develop and maintain situational awareness not just for each individual learner, but also for the whole team- creating a shared mental model. VetLed provides a safe environment to test and experiment with human factors tools also used in other safety-critical industries like human health care and aviation.

VetLed’s non-clinical training then goes a step further. After applying the tools to the scenarios, attendees then take part in debriefs designed to create reflection and embed the learning from the simulations. VetLed Simulation Training has already been effectively used as part of new graduate training programs across the UK. But this training is not just for new graduates. Situational Awareness is vital for the entire veterinary team- clinical and non-clinical members, new graduates, and experienced vets and veterinary nurses.

If you want to lead simulation training in your team, join VetLed’s train-the-trainer course, Supporting Your Team to Perform Under Pressure – starting this Friday (first online session). Find out more here.

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