There are many demands and challenges facing those who work in the emergency services to which ergonomics and human factors can contribute. Whether you are an emergency services control room operator handling calls from distressed members of the public; a paramedic team trying to extricate an unconscious casualty from a toilet cubicle; a firefighter wearing breathing apparatus about to enter a burning building; or a police officer facing an armed criminal; there are many ways in which the consideration and application of ergonomics design principles can help to make that job easier, safer and more effective.
Whilst some of the potential benefits are more obvious (for example, designing body armour so that it protects you but doesn’t restrict movement; developing patient chairs that can be wheeled up stairs rather than carried; devising protective clothing that simultaneously protects you from the heat of fires but doesn’t trap too much of your own body heat), it’s important to realise that non-physical design issues can be equally important. For example, computers are central to many modern command and control systems and the software systems at the heart of these have to function properly – as people’s lives might literally depend on it.
The clue to the importance of these activities lies in the name: the ‘emergency services’. Whatever their role – call taker, despatch coordinator or front-line operations – they are part of providing a service, and of providing that service quickly and effectively.
If you’ve ever worn a dust respirator for DIY jobs, you might have found that your glasses mist up and you can’t see to do the job properly? If that’s happened to you, what did you do? Take your glasses off? Take the dust mask off? (It’s all right as long as you hold your breath). That’s probably OK around the house (unless you’re working with really nasty stuff, which you shouldn’t be). But what if your life depended on you wearing them? What if that smell is nerve gas, or if you’ve removed a stab vest because it gets in the way?
Try to imagine the situation when those bombs went off in London a few years ago. People were trying to coordinate all of the emergency services when parts of the phone system were in meltdown for a few hours. They needed information but didn’t know what was happening, where it had happened, how many were hurt, or if there were any fires. Were there any chemical releases? was there a threat of further explosions? where were the resources? what were they doing? were there enough? what was happening to the tens of thousands of members of the public suddenly forced off the underground and onto the street? What about the traffic blocking roads even more than usual? Oh, and in case that wasn’t enough someone just phoned to say she thinks her husband has just had a heart attack and can you send an ambulance? Information is needed to make proper decisions. It needs to be collected, collated and shared as soon as possible (if not sooner!).
The challenges facing the emergency services are diverse and immense – and so are the opportunities for ergonomics and human factors to play a part in meeting those challenges. Software systems, control room design and layout, the ergonomics of personal protective equipment, lifting and carrying people, driver’s cabs, handling ladders off fire tenders (and back on again), crowd control, etc. Whatever the application, ergonomics and human factors has a role to play.
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