At our February General Meeting, Dr. Marc Taub, head of the Emergency Department at MemorialCare Saddleback Medical Center was our presenter. He covered many aspects of emergency response, and awareness of injury treatments.
ER staff “Hope for the best & Plan for the worst” - just like going on a bike ride.
One take away was his explanation of the importance of “SA” - Situational Awareness. He and his team always check on their own SA - important for treatment of patients - and in our case - very applicable to cycling. He defined Situational Awareness as “an up to the minute awareness of one’s situation”. Specifically one’s
Physical state
Mental state
Equipment
Environment
Teammates
Loss of SA leads to human error - which is critical in an ER and on a bicycle ride, among other things.
His ER staff ROUTINELY check on each other’s SA and ensure their avoidance of errors.
He also talked about the idea of “Check 6”; he described that as covering each other’s “6'“ - when pilots fly combat and military & first responders are deployed, they know the importance of having each other’s “back” - covering a view from “6 o’clock”. When we cycle we are well advised to watch each other’s “6” and ask how our “SA” is.
When we ride as a group, calling out “car back” “bike back” “clear” and watching each other’s physical & mental state, as well as equipment, is being a ssfer team mate.
You can see Dr Taub’s PowerPoint presentation here:
Thank you to Dr. Taub for a good presentation. Those who attended the General Meeting learned a lot, enjoyed home baked cookies and several took home some nice raffle gifts. Come to our General Meetings!
