Anne van Dalen

18 I General Introduction Cockpit resource management training The foundation of crew resource management training are usually traced back to the Resource Management on the Flightdeck workshop, sponsored by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) in 1979. 49 The research presented at this meeting identified that human error was the root-cause of the majority of air crashes and these where categorized as failures of interpersonal communications, decision making, and leadership. At this meeting, the Cockpit Resource Management label was applied to the process of team training to reduce “error” by making better use of human resources. 49 It considers human performance limitations (e.g. fatigue and stress) and the nature of human error, and defines behaviours that are countermeasures to error, such as leadership, briefings, monitoring and cross checking, decision making, and review and modification of plans. 50 This course evolved into what has become known as cockpit and then crew resource management (CRM). This training course is now required for flight crews worldwide, and data support its effectiveness in changing attitudes and behaviour and in enhancing safety. 50 51 Two important conclusions emerge from evaluations of CRM training: firstly, such training needs to be ongoing, because in the absence of recurrent training and reinforcement, attitudes and practices decay; and secondly, it needs to be Figure 2. Individual and team factors influencing situational awareness in the OR. 46