Development of Behavior Markers for Emergency Response Training

Abstract

Regarding the Great East Japan Earthquake of 2011, various reports have stated that many human factor-related challenges were involved in the emergency response at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant. In consideration of this, we developed an emergency response exercise curriculum (taikan exercise) for site leaders that can be completed quickly on-site. This exercise requires players to react in real time to various interruptions made by controllers. Since the players’ behaviors cannot be observed in real time from outside, however, observers must replay hours of video recordings, so the results usually cannot be reviewed immediately after the exercise.

Therefore, this study aimed to develop behavior markers that can be easily observed in real time from outside. Four researchers (including one with on-site work experience) watched videos of the exercise (same scenario) conducted by eight teams and wrote down the players’ behaviors which they recognized as good non-technical skills (NTSs). The recorded behaviors were organized by the four researchers and the extracted behavior markers were grouped into six categories. Lower-level items (elements) of each category were also indicated. From results of a previous study it was argued that behavior observation and evaluation by observers has several constraints, but developing markers tailored to the workplace under such constraints would enable the provision of tools for better observation. In the future for improvement, the identified behavior markers will need to be tested in actual emergency exercises.