A Human Component to Consider in Your Emergency Management Plans: The Critical Incident Stress Factor [1995]

Details

• Personal Author:
  Kowalski, Kathleen M.
• Description:
  In emergency management, the effects of stress on the performance of emergency personnel, typically have been overlooked or regarded as too enigmatic to quantify. This paper discusses the concept of Critical Incident Stress in responders to emergencies. It presents the rationale for considering stress as a significant factor in the management of emergencies. It is proposed that Critical Incident Stress Debriefing in a disaster can improve the effectiveness of response teams on site, their turnaround time on site, and post-disaster time off the job. Critical Incident Stress intervention also can mitigate potential deleterious emotional effects associated with emergency work. This paper, prepared by a U.S. Bureau of Mines researcher, offers some general ideas on how this specific human factor may be incorporated into a plan for emergency management. The impact of stress on emergency workers is presented as a missing component in present emergency management plans. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Emergency Responders Mental Health Mining Occupational Health Safety Stress, Psychological
• Keywords:
  Emergency-responders Mine-disasters Mining-industry Psychological-effects Psychological-stress Stress Traumatic-injuries
• Series:
  Mining Publications
• ISSN:
  0925-7535
• Document Type:
  Text
• Genre:
  Journal Article
• Place as Subject:
  OSHA Region 3 ; Pennsylvania
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Division:
  PRC - Pittsburgh Research Center
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Pages in Document:
  115-123
• Volume:
  20
• Issue:
  1
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20024595
• Citation:
  Saf Sci 1995 Jul; 20(1):115-123
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  1995
• Peer Reviewed:
  True
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:64ea0eb6bece45c7d6c33f81f072b743728acdeaba22683d972818886ad56ba510d350fd0be89a07f9b5f764709c17bfcfe29aa535249e8b2f1d418e32b911f9
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/220782/cdc_220782_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 651.40 KB ]