Managing emergencies is taxing for individuals due to the stress of making decisions in dangerous, high-stakes and time-constrained environments. These complex, dynamic environments also make it difficult to coordinate as other responders perform different roles that may have conflicting goals. This study explored some of the challenges faced by emergency management decision-makers through a literature review of 70 papers identified from SCOPUS and EBSCO database searches. Three major challenges for emergency management were identified: stress and fatigue, interoperability and ethical decision-making. Each of these challenges is examined to explore their nature and how they are likely to evolve in the future. This paper provides helpful advice on how to mitigate these challenges. We argue that to better meet these challenges, emergency services organisations need to develop and maintain appropriate doctrine and training, develop a supportive organisational culture and effectively learn the lessons of previous critical incidents.

Philip Butler

Rhona Flin

Chris Bearman

Peter Hayes

Emergency management decision-making in a changing world: 3 key challenges

ivySCI AI Smartly Parses PDF, Answers Researchers' Questions, and Helps You Understand Papers in Seconds

Journal Info

Category	Quartile
PUBLIC, ENVIRONMENTAL & OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH	4