Swedish nuclear power plant control room crews have training sessions in full scope simulators every year. These sessions are designed to prepare operators to cope with incidents and accidents. The aim is to develop operators’ knowledge, skills and abilities necessary to operate the nuclear power plant in a safe manner. Training sessions is an opportunity to practice and develop the crews’ teamwork, decision processes and working strategies. The purpose of this study was to explore if and how the instrument Shared Priorities can support training of nuclear power plant control room crews. Shared Priorities is an instrument to measure teams’ shared awareness of a situation and has in earlier studies been used in military and student teams. During the simulator re-training period of control room crews, 14 crews used the instrument Shared Priorities in one or two of their training scenarios. The instrument consists of two steps. Firstly, crew members generate and prioritise a list of five items they think are most important for the crew to cope with in the scenarios current situation. They also rank another crew member’s list. Secondly, the crews and instructors perform a focus group discussion based on the generated lists. Results from questionnaires, focus group discussions and an interview with instructors showed that operators and instructors believe that Shared Priorities can support their training in several ways. Crews see meetings and other disseminations of information as an essential part of maintaining shared understanding of different situations. They believe the instrument may help crews reflect upon and develop their meeting procedures. Operators and instructors also believe that by using the instrument it can help crews to increase their understanding of having a shared situation understanding and shared vision. However the procedure when using Shared Priorities has to be modified in order to be able to support crews’ training in an optimal way.

<p>The current study aimed at investigating the concepts of team situation awareness, mental models, and team processes in relation to performance in the complex, dynamic environment of breathing apparatus rescues. Data was collected during exercises at Ågesta training center through questionnaires and after action reviews. 28 firemen and 5 instructors participated in the exercises. Also, a stimulated recall interview was conducted with 2 of the firemen that had participated in one of the exercises. The different data collection methods all indicated that well-developed mental models or a high degree of pre-task knowledge affected performance in a positive way. Moreover, a multiple regression analysis showed that both pre-task knowledge and team processes significantly can predict performance. The results of the analysis of team situation awareness in relation to performance were fairly ambiguous. Therefore, further research is needed to establish the relation between these concepts in the domain at matter.</p>

The current study aimed at investigating the concepts of team situation awareness, mental models, and team processes in relation to performance in the complex, dynamic environment of breathing apparatus rescues. Data was collected during exercises at Ågesta training center through questionnaires and after action reviews. 28 firemen and 5 instructors participated in the exercises. Also, a stimulated recall interview was conducted with 2 of the firemen that had participated in one of the exercises. The different data collection methods all indicated that well-developed mental models or a high degree of pre-task knowledge affected performance in a positive way. Moreover, a multiple regression analysis showed that both pre-task knowledge and team processes significantly can predict performance. The results of the analysis of team situation awareness in relation to performance were fairly ambiguous. Therefore, further research is needed to establish the relation between these concepts in the domain at matter.

Practical drift is defined as the unintentional adaptation of routine behaviors from written procedure. The occurrence of practical drift can result in catastrophic disaster in high-reliability organizations (e.g. the military, emergency medicine, space exploration). Given the lack of empirical research on practical drift, this research sought to develop a better understanding by investigating ways to assess and stop the process in high-reliability organizations. An introductory literature review was conducted to investigate the variables that play a role in the occurrence of practical drift in teams. Research was guided by the input-throughput-output model of team adaptation posed by Burke, Stagl, Salas, Pierce, and Kendall (2006). It demonstrates relationships supported by the results of the literature review and the Burke and colleagues (2006) model denoting potential indicators of practical drift in teams. Research centralized on the core processes and emergent states of the adaptive cycle; namely, shared mental models, team situation awareness, and coordination. The resulting model shows the relationship of procedure—practice coupling demands misfit and maladaptive violations of procedure being mediated by shared mental models, team situation awareness, and coordination. Shared mental models also lead to team situation awareness, and both depict a mutual, positive relationship with coordination. The cycle restarts when an error caused by maladaptive violations of procedure creates a greater misfit between procedural demands and practical demands. This movement toward a theory of practical drift in teams provides a conceptual framework and testable propositions for future research to build from, giving practical avenues to predict and prevent accidents resulting from drift in high-reliability organizations. Suggestions for future research are also discussed, including possible directions to explore. By examining the relationships reflected in the new model, steps can be taken to counteract organizational failures in the process of practical drift in teams.