Applied Research
Current Projects in Applied Research
Applied research projects currently underway at the Centre include:
Bushfire CRC
The
Operational readiness of
volunteer firefighters
Dr. Sally Ferguson, Dr. Sarah Jay, Dr. Amelia Searle, Raymond Matthews
Bushfires are a real and ruthless threat to the lives and livelihoods of individuals living in rural and urban fringe areas. Volunteer and career firefighters charged with managing this annual threat face a number of occupational and environmental stressors. Long hours during both day and night shift, often with reduced sleep opportunities, are common. Across work shifts, firefighters are required to perform intermittent, intense physical labour often in hot and smoky conditions, at the same time making critical decisions in often life-threatening situations. In isolation, factors such as heat, smoke (or its constituent elements), and sleep disruption can have a detrimental impact on cognitive and physical work capacity. To date, however, no study has assessed the combined effect that these multiple stressors have on human performance. Such information is critical for rural fire agencies to manage the health, safety and productivity of personnel during bushfire suppression. Thus, the aim of this research is to investigate the impact of multiple fireground stressors (i.e., sleep disruption, heat and smoke) in isolation and in combination, on firefighters’ physiological responses, and physical and cognitive work performance across a simulated three-day bushfire suppression ‘tour’.
Download the 2011 Bushfire CRC conference poster: Managing Fatigue-Risk During Long Deployments: Rationale for a sustained Operations Mode
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Organizing for Incident Management
Team Failure in emergency
incident management coordination in major events has long been recognised in
both the national and the international. In large events breakdowns of
information flow, and in particular breakdowns in coordination above the IMT
are both common and always problematic. The findings from the Royal
Commission indicate a need to look beyond creating new standard operating
procedures or adding to existing role responsibilities. They indicate that,
despite the good work that has occurred in the past to build a robust
inter-service incident management system, in overwhelming events
communication and coordination breaks down and fractures. This project is
seeking to better understand how multi-agency emergency management
coordination above the IMT level can be improved in order to reduce the
consequences to communities of the emergency event. The research questions
What are the existing and best practices for Incident Management
coordination? How does information flow to and from the Incident Controller
(IMT) influence the controllers capacity to develop suitable alternative
plans to adjust to emerging conditions? How has a lack of shared mental
models by key personnel in emergency incident management led to breakdowns
in coordination in previous incidents? How might we best train and educate
personnel in the most effective emergency management coordination above the
IMT? What social networks of communication best facilitate effective
multi-agency coordination? What changes are needed to support effective
command and control and multi-agency coordination.
Download the 2011 Bushfire CRC conference poster: Team Decision Making Breakdowns in the Wangary and Kilmore East Fires
CRC for Rail Innovation Projects
With
a $100m research program over seven years and just under 100 projects
underway, the Cooperative Research Centre (CRC) for Rail Innovation is set
to bring enormous benefits to Australia’s rail industry, conducting
industry-led research and delivering practical solutions for our rail
industry participants. The CRC includes numerous industry and university
participants from across Australia. The Centre for Sleep Research is
currently involved in a number of projects:
Route Knowledge Acquisition
Dr. Anjum Naweed, Ganesh Balakrishnan, Dr. Chris Bearman, Prof. Drew Dawson
This project aims to better understand how train drivers acquire and encode their route knowledge, with a view towards developing a more informed model of how it is internally represented. Most train driver training programs develop route knowledge by physically exposing trainees to the route. However, there is likely to be a great deal of redundancy in this approach since many sections of a given route may provide very limited learning opportunities. To address this issue, this project also aims to explore the feasibility of a training program that enhances the way simulator scenarios may be used to optimize driving competencies.
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Capturing Driving Strategies
Dr. Anjum Naweed, Ganesh Balakrishnan, Dr. Chris Bearman, Prof. Drew Dawson
This project is aiming to develop a detailed understanding of how train drivers acquire different driving strategies. Train driver training programs utilize a mixture of different learning techniques to achieve competency, including classroom theory and simulator sessions. The main proponent however is ‘on the job’ type of training, largely in the form of cab rides under expert guidance. In order to explore the value of exposure to different levels of expertise, the project seeks to identify the strategies and techniques that experienced drivers’ use, together with some of the problems and pitfalls to be avoided. Hence, this project attempts to comprise a detailed knowledgebase, and capture the knowledge of experienced drivers before it is lost.
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Analytic Tools for Human Factors Evaluation of New In-Cab and Train Control Technologies
Dr. Chris Bearman, Dr. Kirrilly Thompson, Dr. Jill Dorrian, Dr. Anjum Naweed, Jan Rose
Rapid advancements in train control and in-cab technologies provide opportunities for rail operators to improve efficiency and enhance operations. However, new technologies are a significant form of risk. New technologies often provide elegant new solutions to problems or provide new capabilities for the operator but they frequently neglect human factors issues. Neglect of human factors issues can mean that new technologies have unintended consequences leading to either rejection by users or to situations where the job is made more difficult rather than easier. Some recent examples of new technologies having such issues in the rail industry are: Locomotive refurbishments that have made the drivers job more difficult, ATP technologies that leave drivers frustrated by the lack of correspondence with their skills, and a fuel saving technology that was rejected by drivers because it did not anticipate or appropriately support their decision making. Currently, the Australian rail industry lacks a standardised approach to the human factors evaluation of new technologies in operational settings. This project seeks to fill that gap by developing a set of human factors methods that human factors specialists can use to evaluate new technologies before they are rolled-out.
References
Bearman, C., Rose, J., Naweed, A., & Dorrian, J., (Eds., forthcoming). A Practical Guide to Evaluating the Human Factors Issues of New Rail Technologies. Aldershot, UK: Ashgate.
Rose, J., & Bearman, C. (in press). Making Effective Use of Task Analysis to Identify Human Factors Issues in New Rail Technology. Applied Ergonomics.
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Development of a National Rail Safety Management Program
Dr. Chris Bearman, Jared Grunwald
In order to effectively meet the challenges of improving Australia's rail safety record in a complex climate of advancing technology, increasingly rapid turnover of staff, and increased competition, significant investment in advanced safety training is necessary. A recent report prepared for the Australasian Railway Association (Hawke, 2008) mapped out the key competencies required by a rail safety manager and identified gaps in the current provision of training for rail safety managers. This project responds to the identified need through the development of a dedicated post-graduate coursework program in Rail Safety Management.
The project will develop a standardised and comprehensive safety management curriculum that will be developed in close conjunction with industry and university partners. It will take the form of a postgraduate level program in Safety Management.It is expected that once the program is established, the industry will provide 20 participants in the program per year. Greater industry safety management awareness will add to productivity and safety, and enable industry personnel to make a more effective evaluation of the risk of current and future operations.
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Safety Case for Driver Only Operations
Dr. Jill Dorrian, Dr. Anjum Naweed
Currently, two driver operations are the most common way to operate freight and coal trains in most parts of Australia. However, (Driver Only Operations; DOO) are becoming more frequent. Moving from the traditional “two-up” driver system to DOO may result in increases in single driver workload as well as changes in likelihood of error and the types of errors made. The aim of the proposed research program is to examine the decision-making, error profile and performance of single-driver operations compared to two-driver operations. Specifically, this study will examine the circumstances under which DOO operations are likely to be appropriate (i.e. depending on safeworking system, track characteristics, train consist etc.). Indeed, there may be conditions where DOO may represent a safety improvement relative to dual driver operations. The proposed project will involve a mixed-methods approach, consisting of three complimentary phases:
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Focus groups will be conducted to explore the factors that drivers feel may be related to safe operation of the train in single and dual driver systems;
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A series of in-cab observations of “two-up” and DOO operations will be conducted to evaluate driver workload and error tolerance; and
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Informed by Phases 1 and 2, scenarios will be developed and tested in the simulator to compare “two-up” and DOO.
Systematic examination of the differences between “two-up” and DOO in rail will allow informed implementation of DOO, which is already an increasing trend in the Australian rail Industry. In particular, understanding of the differences in workload for the single driver, and overall error tolerance of the system is critical for safe implementation of DOO. This research will generate evidence-based guidelines for a standard national safety case for single driver operations in Australia.
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Second Generation FRMS
Dr. Sally Ferguson
A Fatigue Risk Management System (FRMS) is a requirement for all rail operators in Australia. Traditional approaches to managing fatigue in the workplace have been prescriptive - such as regulating hours, breaks and time off duty. These measures typically take little or no account of the physiological determinants of fatigue. An alternative is to use a risk management approach to manage fatigue. FRMS are being implicated across a range of industries in Australia and internationally (e.g. aviation, mining and healthcare).The project aims to develop a framework for a flexible risk-based national standard for fatigue management for the rail industry.
This project is being progressed in conjunction with project R2.110 (Next Generation Fatigue Models). The combined outcomes of these projects will be a framework for the use of work-related fatigue models such as FAID or other tools within a systematically implemented FRMS. The benefits to end-users will be
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a standardised approach to fatigue risk management based on current scientific knowledge and best practice,
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a set of practical tools and strategies to be used in the development of individual FRMS,
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standardised guidelines for the use of pre-existing fatigue management tools such as FAID, and
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a set of standardised key performance indicators against which rail operators and regulators can assess the performance of a rail organisation’s FRMS.
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Next Generation Fatigue Models
Dr. Sally Ferguson, Dr. Jessica Paterson, Larissa Clarkson
Fatigue models are increasingly used by rail operators and regulators to manage and regulate work-related fatigue in Australia and overseas. In Australia, fatigue models were initially introduced in the early part of this decade as a decision support tool used in the design and evaluation of rosters for freight drivers. More recently, the use of these models by rail operators and regulators has been extended to include many other groups of rail workers. The original data sets underpinning the fatigue modelling software were derived from a relatively narrow selection of freight rail drivers and did not include the diversity of work groups now defined as Rail Safety Workers and increasingly managed using fatigue modelling software packages.
The project aims to improve the reliability and validity of the data used to inform fatigue models. The combined outcomes of this and related projects will be work-related fatigue models that are representative of the different workgroups for which these tools are being used and reflect the current state-of-the-art for fatigue modelling. The benefits to end-users will be work-related fatigue modelling tools that are representative of the different social/domestic profiles of different workgroups within the industry, and have the capacity to inform the likelihood that a given shift falls within a specified fatigue score.
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SPAD Management and Risk Mitigation
Dr. Anjum Naweed, Associate Professor Verna Blewett, Dr. Kirrilly Thompson, Dr. Amelia Searle, Prof. Drew Dawson
This project will undertake scoping and industry consultation to determine how signal passed at danger (SPAD) events are currently managed and mitigated in Australian rail operations. A SPAD event describes a situation where the safe working of the driver-train system has broken down to represent a high-risk failure mode in railway operations. Whilst SPAD risk is somewhat mitigated by the use of very specific onboard train protection and trackside equipment, Australia’s industry-wide differences in rail operations and piece-meal implementation of these devices prohibits the feasibility of an interoperable engineering solution. As a fundamental human error of omission or commission in the train driving task, the nature of SPAD events advocate the use of a human factors-based approach to identify the underlying issues substantive to the problem. The aim of this initial scoping and consultation project is to establish how SPAD risk is currently being mitigated in different rail contexts with a view to exploring these strategies and evaluating the efficacy of further research.
This project will apply a novel suite of qualitative methods to determine how signal passed at danger (SPAD) events are currently being mitigated in the Australian railway industry. A SPAD event describes a situation where the safe working of the driver-train co-agency has broken down to represent a mode of high-risk failure. SPAD risk is somewhat mitigated by the use of very specific on-board train protection and trackside equipment, but as an error of omission or commission in the driving task itself, the nature of the event advocates the use of a human factors-based approach to identify the underlying issues substantive to the problem. It is anticipated that the data will reveal highly effective albeit ‘unpublished’ driving strategies, which may be analysed and compiled to fill the gap in the existing knowledgebase.
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RLX Interventions Framework
Dr. Anjum Naweed, Dr. Amelia Searle, Prof. Drew Dawson
This project’s key objective is to identify an optimum intervention framework for managing safety at railway level crossings (RLXs). The Australian rail industry currently applies upgrades to level crossings incrementally, according to rankings informed by a safety-risk assessment model. Improvements and upgrades are subsequently implemented using a combination of active and passive countermeasures that render them fail-to-safe, but given the sheer number of crossings across Australia, upgrading them in this manner is very costly and time consuming. This project seeks to explore these issues and offer legal clarification on the political risk substantive to various interventions frameworks.
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Keeping Rail on Track: Development of a Best Practice Model for Safety Culture in the Australian Rail Industry
Associate Professor Verna Blewett, Dr. Sophia Rainbird, Dr. Jill Dorrian, Dr. Jessica Paterson
Safety culture has been discussed in the literature for the last 30 years as the feature of organisations that directly influences safety and health at work. Safety culture is believed to be particularly important for high-risk industries and industries that require high reliability to function safely, like the Australian Rail Industry. Frameworks for action to improve organisational culture, and in particular, safety culture, have been developed in other industries, most notably in mining and quarrying in Australia. The Digging Deeper project (Shaw, Blewett et al 2007) provided an evidentiary base for best practice principles in its 10 Platinum Rules and may have applicability in this industry. They provide a starting block in the development of the Best Practice Safety Culture Model for the rail industry.
The broad objectives of this project are:
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To build a Best Practice for Safety Culture Model in the Australian Rail Industry.
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To test the ability of the UK RSSB Safety Culture Survey as an instrument that is able to indicate progression towards Best Practice Safety Culture.
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Test the 10 Platinum Rules from the Digging Deeper project (Shaw, Blewett et al 2008) as a framework for action towards Best Practice Safety Culture.
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To identify possible improvements in the RSSB Safety Culture Survey that better enable its use as an assessment of Best Practice Safety Culture in the Australian context.
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To identify what organisations can do in response to identified gaps in Safety Culture, that is, how they can address the gaps.
This project is being undertaken with a multi-method approach – a mix of quantitative and qualitative methods with a participatory design phase using the Future Inquiry Workshop (Blewett and Shaw 2008) to develop interventions for improvement in the three participating rail organisations.
References
Shaw, A, Blewett, VL, Stiller, L, Cox, S, Ferguson, S Frick, K and Aickin, C. (2007) Digging Deeper: Wran Consultancy Project.Report on a research project commissioned by the NSW Mines Safety Advisory Council. Two volumes.
http://www.dpi.nsw.gov.au/minerals/safety/consultation/digging-deeper
Blewett, V. and Shaw, A. (2008) Future Inquiry: Participatory ergonomics at work. Proceedings of the Nordic Ergonomics Society Conference, Reykjavik, Iceland, 11-13 August, 2008.
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A
socio-economic study of platform and carriage crowding in the railway
industry
Dr. Kirrilly Thompson, Lily Hirsch
USA Federal Motor Carrier Safety Authority – Impact of Sleep Restriction on Health and Performance
Dr. Siobhan Banks
This is a collaborative project being conducted with Professors Hans Van Dongen and Greg Belenky (Sleep and Performance Center, Washington State University). The project examines the metabolic and neurobehavioral consequences of 5 nights of sleep restriction in young healthy men.
Australian Research Council (ARC) Linkage Project - Zeroing in on food waste: Measuring, understanding and reducing food waste
Dr. Kirrilly Thompson
Listen to the Children: Children's nutrition knowledge and application to healthy food choices
Dr. Kirrilly Thompson
Identifying discourses around the effect of animals on human behaviour in natural disasters: Implications for safe evacuation of humans, livestock and companion animals
Dr. Kirrilly Thompson
Safework SA Projects
Identifying the Safety-Related Competencies of Effective Supervisors
Dr. Chris Bearman, Jared Grunwald
The supervisor (defined broadly here as a middle-manager in the first-few lines of management) plays a critical, but not well understood role in ensuring that operations are not becoming unsafe. Supervisors must balance on one hand the competing demands exerted by management to be more productive and on the other hand the needs of the workers to act in safe, but efficient ways. Productivity is a central part of an organization’s focus since it ultimately determines how profitable that organization is. In contrast, safety is less tangible and is generally measured in lack of occurrences (such as reduced lost time injuries or lack of accidents). In organizations that have a high focus on productivity safety can become eroded in subtle ways (Reason, 1990). The aim of the project is to produce an enhanced understanding of the role of the supervisor in ensuring safety in the workplace. This will be achieved by seeking to develop a better understanding of the key safety-related competencies and strategies used by effective (and ineffective) supervisors in relation to how they manage the competing demands of their role and shape the behaviour of the workers they supervise (particularly the new and inexperienced members of the workforce). The knowledge developed through this project will be used to raise awareness of the skills required for effective supervision, enhance regulatory tools, and can be further developed into selection criteria for recruiting supervisors and enhanced training programmes for supervisors.
References
Chapman, J., and Bearman, C. (2011). Identifying the Safety‐related Competencies of Effective Supervisors: Review of the Literature. Technical Report Prepared under the Safework SA Commissioned Research Grants Program. Adelaide, Australia: Safework SA.
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Partnering for OHS: An evaluation of the Partnerships Program
Associate Professor Verna Blewett, Dr. Jill Dorrian
This project was originally established to evaluate the first round of the South Australian Government’s three-year Health and Safety Workplace Partnership Program (2007 – 2010) (hereafter called the Partnership Program), which aimed to increase the number of health and safety representative (HSRs) in Priority Industries in order to better manage the Priority Risks and improve occupational health, safety and welfare (OHSW) in South Australia. The Program established a grants scheme to enable employee associations (unions) to assist in achieving the goals of the Program. The secondary goal of the research was to update our knowledge about worker participation in OHS in South Australia following the Working Together research that was conducted in 2001 (Blewett, 2001). In order to investigate these two areas we developed an instrument to enable investigation of worker participation in OHS. This research was funded by SafeWork SA under the Small Grant Scheme. Since the commencement of the research Safe Work Australia has initiated the harmonisation of work health and safety regulation in Australia and is interested in obtaining baseline data about HSRs prior to the enactment of national legislation in 2012. Safe Work Australia has supplemented the funding of this project to enable the research to be extended to incorporate their needs. These were to include some questions in the survey about notifiable incidents, and to extend the survey to workers as well as HSRs and managers/OHS professionals. Since the initial funding of this research project the first round of the Partnership Program has been completed, the decision to re-fund it has been taken, calls for participation in the next round were made and projects selected. In the meantime, too, the regulatory landscape for OHS is changing.
References
Blewett, V.L. (2001) Working together: A review of the effectiveness of the health and safety representative and workplace health and safety committee system in South Australia. Adelaide: WorkCover Corporation.
Examining the Subtle Pressures That Can Lead to Poor Decision Making by Pilots Flying Remote Operations in Australia
Dr. Chris Bearman, Dana Michalski
Australia has a large number of pilots who fly passenger-carrying operations in remote areas. Encompassing RPT, Charter and GA operations, these remote operations can comprise flying industry personnel to outlying sites (such as mines and oil and gas installations) and flying tourist around sites of outstanding natural beauty. Remote operations in Australia can be challenging because they cover large areas of wilderness, have minimal supporting infrastructure, and often operate in extreme weather and dusty conditions. In addition, operators often have to vie for work in a cut-throat industry and employ young pilots who must compete for jobs in order to build flight time (Jones, 2003). Remote pilots may also be more prone to hold negative safety attitudes, such as the “Bush Pilot Mentality” (an attitude where the pilot considers themself to be brave and able to complete any mission regardless of the difficulty). Despite the difficulties of flying these types of passenger-carrying operations there has been little or no research into pilots flying remote operations in Australia. Previous research by NASA into pilots flying remote operations in Alaska, USA (Bearman, Paletz and Orasanu, 2007; 2008; Paletz, Bearman, Orasanu & Holbrook, in preparation) has identified a number of pressures that can lead pilots into making poor decisions. These pressures have been categorized as social psychological, situational and organizational. The proposed project will examine a range of passenger-carrying operations (such as off-shore oil platform transport, tourist flights, mine-site transportation) in remote parts of Australia to determine the nature of the pressures that can lead to poor decisions. The study will be based on two surveys and 40 critical decision interviews (where the pilot describes incidents that challenged his/her abilities) and will employ a coding scheme developed from Bearman et al.’s work. The results of this study will be used to develop 1) a paper-based risk assessment tool that can assist the pilot in making decisions about individual flights and 2) the core content for a training course for pilots in the subtle pressures that can lead to poor decisions while flying remote operations.
Past Projects in Applied Research
The prediction of sleep/wake behaviour based on physiological and social factorsDr. Greg Roach, Dr. Jill Dorrian
Sleep is important for all people because it gives us an opportunity to recover from, and prepare for, being awake. Traditional models of sleep/wake behaviour consider sleep to be determined primarily by physiological factors such as length of previous sleep, duration of wakefulness and time-of-day. However, recent evidence suggests that sleep is also determined by other factors such as work, family and social commitments. The aim of this project was to examine the influence of all three factors on sleep, and develop algorithms to accurately predict sleep/wake behaviour. These algorithms could be incorporated into a mathematical model to estimate the level of fatigue associated with irregular work schedules.
The prevalence of shiftwork has increased in Australia over the last few decades. Shiftworkers obtain less sleep, have greater difficulty maintaining good relationships, have poorer health, and are more likely to be injured at work than others. Using the largest dataset of its kind, we have substantially contributed to understanding the relationships between work hours, sleep, performance and safety. Ultimately, it will answer a question critical to workplace safety - how much time off between shifts is needed to be alert and safe at work? The project will also produce tools to help industry design fatigue-friendly rosters, improving the safety, productivity and general well-being of shiftworkers in Australia and overseas.
Study and analysis into fatigue coastal pilots (2004-2005, Australian Maritime Safety Authority)
Key researchers: Sally Ferguson, Drew Dawson
A number of incidents in the Great Barrier Reef area were shown to be
fatigue-related. This project aimed to provide objective data on which to
base recommendations for minimising the impact of fatigue, including the
suitability of minimum rest-break requirements, and to develop fatigue
training for coastal pilots.
Rail industry shiftwork and workload study, Phase III
(2002–2005, funded by the Australian Rail Consortium)
Key researchers: Drew Dawson, Frank Hussey, Jill Dorrian, Stuart Baulk, Nicole Lamond, Angela Baker, Adam Fletcher, Ryan Higgins, Katie Kandelaars, Karah Hogarth, Michael Gratton, Matthew Thomas.
In collaboration with a consortia comprised of seven national rail
organisations and the Rail, Tram and Bus Union, this project focussed on an
assessment of risk and workload in the rail industry, the development of
fitness for duty programs, and the development of a web-based Safety
Management System software application. The final stages of the Shiftwork
and Workload Study was enhanced by using actual driver performance data from
locomotive data loggers.
Development of a validated tool to help manage the risk of human fatigue in the workplace
(2003–2005, funded by an Australian Research Council Discovery Grant)
Key researchers: Stuart Baulk, Katie Kandelaars, Adam Fletcher, Greg Roach.
A recent federal parliamentary inquiry recommended that a fatigue risk management approach be applied to the regulation of working hours within industry. A key requirement of such an approach, and the aim of this newly awarded project, is to develop a scientifically validated tool to help manage the work-related fatigue associated with hours-of-work. Ultimately, this will reduce the costs of our 24-hour society on employees, their families, organisations and the wider community. In 2003, research on this project was undertaken with the facilitation of the mining industry. Further major support for the coming years has also been offered by stakeholders in the rail industry.
Error management in aviation training: Defining best practice
(2004–2005, funded by the Australian Transport Safety Bureau)
Key Researchers: Matthew Thomas, Renee Petrilli.
Human Error remains a significant causal factor in the majority of aviation incidents and accidents. However, we are still some way from defining best practice in Error Management Training. This study will provide the Australian aviation industry with a concrete training package for error management training for flight crew.
Development of national principles and tools for the recognition, prevention and mitigation of fatigue in health workers
(2004–2005, funded by the Department of Health and Ageing)
Key researchers: Sally Ferguson, Drew Dawson, Jill Dorrian.
This project aimed to develop national principles and tools for the
recognition, prevention and mitigation of fatigue in healthcare
professionals.
Fatigue research and evaluation in the US rail industry
(2002–2005, funded by the Federal Rail Administration, USA)
Key Researchers: Drew Dawson.
Internationally, the Centre has made a significant contribution to the US rail industry with the near completion of a research project with the US Federal Rail Administration. Professor Drew Dawson has worked closely with rail administrators to develop human performance measures for use in existent locomotive simulators.
Developing and implementing performance-based fatigue management systems
(2001–2004, funded by Qantas, the Civil Aviation Safety Authority, and the Australian and International Pilot's Association)
Key researchers: Drew Dawson, Gregory Roach, Nicole Lamond, Matthew Thomas, Renee Petrilli, David Darwent, Tracey Sletten, Adam Fletcher.
With the collaboration of industry partners, researchers created realistic
flight scenarios for a simulator study to look at the effects of fatigue on
pilots' performance.
Instructional use of threat and error
(2004, funded by Virgin Blue)
Key Researchers: Matthew Thomas.
The aim of the project is to undertake a systematic analysis of the instructional use of Threat and Error within the simulator base-training environment of commercial airlines. The project seeks to provide the industry with a series of recommendations for enhancing the instructional use of threats and errors as they occur during training in order to maximise the instructional benefit of the simulator-based training process.
Fatigue and error management in anaesthesia
Key researchers: Matthew Thomas, Renee Petrilli, Kate Fraser, Gerry Trueren (OHS UniSA), Simon Jenkins (Royal Adelaide Hospital).
Whilst previous research has examined the impact of fatigue on anaesthetists' cognitive skills using laboratory tasks, to date, no research has examined the effects of fatigue on anaesthetists' operational performance in real-world settings. Using a 'real-world' patient simulator, the aims of the proposed research are to (1) determine the cognitive skills that are crucial to anaesthetists' operational performance, and (2) examine the impact of fatigue on anaesthetists' operational performance. It is anticipated that the findings of this study will help to minimise errors and risks derived from fatigue in anaesthesia, and ultimately, help to save lives.
Managing driver fatigue: Quantifying real world performance impairment
(2005, ATSB Road Safety Research Grant)
Key researchers: Stuart Baulk, Cameron van den Heuvel, Kathy Reid (Northwestern University).
Dr Stuart Baulk and Dr Cameron van den Heuvel were awarded a one year project grant in collaboration with Dr. Kathy Reid, at Northwestern University in Chicago, USA. Fatigue-related driving accidents are preventable and may decrease with a systematic fatigue management approach. Such systems are being implemented in many industries, having been validated against laboratory performance tests. This project aims to compare these tests with simulated driving performance, thus potentially extending the benefit of fatigue management systems into the driving area.
Nurses work hours, sleep and fatigue: Implications for patient safety
Key researchers: Jill Dorrian, Nicole Lamond, Cameron van den Heuvel, Matthew Thomas, Jan Pincombe (School of Nursing and Midwifery, UniSA), Ann Rogers (School of Nursing, University of Pennsylvania), Drew Dawson.
A shortage of registered nurses has lead to extended shifts, increased overtime and fewer breaks. Consequently, nurses are at risk of fatigue-related performance impairment, with adverse implications for nurse and patient safety. This study examined the relationship between nurses' sleep, alertness, work schedules, error frequency and error type. This study will provide a first step towards determining fatigue-safe working conditions for Australian nurses.