Situation awareness of emergency response centre personnel during chemical incidents: an interview study in a Swedish context

OBJECTIVES: If a chemical incident occurs, the emergency response centre (ERC) personnel are the first that are notified. They need to quickly attain situation awareness, based on the information from the caller, in order to dispatch the correct emergency units. The aim of this study is to examine the situation awareness of the personnel working at ERCs—how they perceive, comprehend, project and act during chemical incidents. METHODS: Semi-structured individual interviews with 12 participants from the Swedish ERCs were performed. The interviews were analysed with qualitative content analysis. RESULTS: Three categories of responses were identified. Responses focused on the complexity of identifying chemical incidents, the importance of ensuring the safety of citizens and personnel of emergency organisations and the situation-based dispatch of organisations. CONCLUSIONS: The correct identification of the chemical incident and the involved chemical by the ERC personnel are necessary in order to notify, inform and dispatch the correct units, as well as to ensure the safety of citizens and emergency personnel. More research is needed about the dichotomies of the ERC personnel needing as much information as possible for everyone’s safety versus their responsibility for the safety of the caller as well as between using emergency dispatch index interview guides and trusting their gut feeling.