Presentation
Mass Casualty Incident Commander Decision-Making Models
Event Type
Lecture
Cognitive Engineering & Decision Making
TimeWednesday, October 12th12:15pm - 12:30pm EDT
LocationA706
DescriptionIntroduction: Mass casualty incident (MCI) commanders face difficult challenges when managing MCIs in the prehospital phase. Modeling and optimizing the commander's decision-making process can increase survivability. This study explored decision-making models that describe MCI commander decision-making. Methods: Quantitative data from eight simulations were collected and tagged as cues and actions. Results: At the simulation initiation, commanders operated based on the protocol guidance. As more cues were received, the commander mainly responded to single cues. Towards the end, the commander integrated many cues prior to responding or initiated an action without a preliminary cue. Discussion: As the MCI commander decision-making changes over the simulation phases, the dual-process model (System 1&2) best describes this decision-making process. At the beginning of an MCI (evaluation and triage phase), commanders are responding automatically to cues. Toward the end of an MCI (evacuation phase), commanders are more "analytical", integrating cues and initiating responses without preliminary cues.