What is PrIMe?

The UPLOADS Preventing Incidents Method (PrIMe) is a quick and simple 8 step process organisations can use to translate the data collected through the UPLOADS App into incident prevention strategies.

The process requires members from all levels of the organisation hierarchy to work together to identify incident prevention strategies and ‘Action Plans’ that will support the implementation, monitoring and evaluation of the incident prevention strategies produced.

How is PrIMe different to other Incident Investigation Processes?

PrIMe uses a System’s Thinking approach to drive the strategy design process.  This involves the group agreeing on the issue that requires strategy development; and agreeing that the strategy development process will align with the following principles:

• No blame. Strategies will not focus on individuals in the system or assign any blame or fault for the issue to specific individuals.
• Systemic change. Strategies will focus on modifying the overall led outdoor activity system, rather than modifying parts in isolation.
• A shared responsibility for safety. When developing strategies, the group will think about the led outdoor activity system and all actors/organisations who share the responsibility for safety, rather than individual components such as activity leaders, participants or equipment.

How can PrIMe help make led outdoor activities even safer for the wider community?

Organisations will be invited to share their Action Plans with the National Incident Dataset (NID) via the UPLOADS App.

When all organisations across Australia submit their de-identified Action Plans to the NID, the research team will be able to report the successful strategies that have been to prevent incidents.

We hope that by sharing this information, we will be able to make outdoor activities even safer for you, and the wider community!

Can my organisation use PrIMe?

At this stage, PrIMe is only available to Led Outdoor Activity Providers who have registered to use the UPLOADS App, as the process requires the use of data collected through the UPLOADS Incident Reporting System.  If you would like to register to use the UPLOADS App, click here.

If your organisation has registered to use the UPLOADS App, please register your interest in using PrIMe here.

After an incredibly busy six months for the project team, and our new UPLOADS App users; we are very pleased to provide you with the first of what will be quarterly infographic reports, presenting a snapshot of the analysis of data from the new app.

After a review of the initial data, walking/running incidents were the most frequently reported incidents so we have focused primarily on those, and split by gender, incident type and the factors and relationships contributing to incidents.

National Incident Database (NID)

When Led Outdoor Activity Providers contribute incident and participation data to the NID, it forms a repository of information about incident rates and the network of contributory factors involved in incident causation.

56 providers from across Australia have been contributing data to the NID, via the UPLOADS App since September 2018.  For an overview of the data collected to date, click here.

Benchmarking

From April 1, 2019, UPLOADS App users will be able to benchmark their organisation’s incident data to the National Incident Dataset. This feature can support the development of incident prevention strategies in response to issues identified within the organisation and the wider sector.

To contribute valuable information to the National Incident Dataset and use the Benchmarking feature, click here and register your organisation to use the UPLOADS App!

Several enhancements have been made to the “Custom Fields” function to help streamline data entry and data quality.

Enhancements include a Custom Field to collect information about treatments administered to injured or ill persons (e.g. time/date, type, dosage, administered by, and reason for administration).

To find out what’s new…  Click here.

The UPLOADS Team would like to thank The Outdoor Education Group for sponsoring these enhancements and making the UPLOADS App even more user-friendly.

Register to use the UPLOADS App here.
Do you already have an established incident reporting system, but still want to contribute to the UPLOADS Research Project? No worries, click here to find out how.

How can we contribute?

Many organisations that conduct Led Outdoor Activities (LOA) already have established incident reporting systems and do not want to use the UPLOADS App.  We would like to invite these organisations to contribute information that will allow the research team to evaluate the safety benefits of using the UPLOADS App.

What type of information is required?

• Incident reports collected by your organisation (near misses; injuries; illnesses; psychosocial, e.g. emotional or psychological; equipment damage; environmental damage; and missing or overdue people)
• Information about the programs run by your organisation (i.e. participation data):
  • Types of activities run on program and the number of participants partaking in the activities;
  • Number of people involved in the program (including participants, leaders, supervisors, and support); and
  • The age and gender of participants on program.
• Information about the strategies used by your organisation to prevent incidents.

If your organisation does not collect some of the information, that is ok!  We will collect what is available.   

What about privacy and confidentiality?

To ensure your organisation’s confidentiality, and the privacy of individual’s information:

• Your data will be aggregated with other data collected.
• The research team will ensure that all identifiable information (including names of people, places, and organisations) is removed.
• No individuals or organisations will be identifiable from any publications, case study analyses, or reports produced by the research team.

How do we get involved?

Register your interest here.

Mark Brackenreg has recently announced his retirement from school life at St Joseph’s College. While Mark isn’t retiring from his voluntary work, the UPLOADS Team would like to take this opportunity to acknowledge his contribution to our project and more broadly to the sector.

Mark is passionate about improving risk management during outdoor education programs – with an emphasis on collecting good quality data about incidents:

“to allow all concerned to make informed decisions based on some hard evidence rather than their individual perception of the risk involved.”(Brackenreg, 1997).

That’s right – Mark has long advocated for a standardised approach to incident reporting in the outdoor education sector, and he wrote one of the first peer reviewed journal publications reporting on Australian incident data back in 1997. This work provided an evidence base for the UPLOADS project to build upon.

We’d like to thank Mark for this work, and for all of the feedback he has provided throughout the development of UPLOADS.

We wish Mark all the best for his retirement – and look forward to seeing what he does next.

If you’d like to read Mark’s journal papers:

Brackenreg, M. (1998). Learning from Our Mistakes—Before It’s Too Late. Journal of Outdoor and Environmental Education, 3(2), 27-33.

Brackenreg, M. (1997). How safe are we? A review of injury and illness in outdoor education programmes. Journal of adventure education and outdoor leadership, 14(1), 10-16.

Brackenreg, M., Luckner, J., & Pinch, K. (1994). Research update: Essential skills for processing adventure experiences. Journal of Experiential Education, 17(3), 45-47.

Brackenreg, M. (1993). Theories, Practices and Benefits of Debriefing in Outdoor Education. Journal of Outdoor Education, 26, 3-11.

2019 Research Symposium

Interested in learning about new Human Factors and Ergonomics (HFE) research findings and methods?

Want to put HFE and systems thinking into practice in your organisation?

Join the Centre for Human Factors and Sociotechnical Systems at the University of the Sunshine Coast (Partner on the UPLOADS project) at the 2019 Research Symposium to take a closer look at how HFEs and systems thinking research and methods can positively impact safety and efficiency in your workplace.

The  one-day symposium and two-day series of HFE methods workshops will be held at USC Sunshine Coast, from Monday 4 February until Wednesday 6 February 2019.

Research Symposium 4 February 2019

The symposium will host leading international and national experts in Human Factors. Keynote speakers will include Professor Neville Stanton from the University of Southampton and Professor Guy Walker from Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh. In addition, the symposium will feature presentations from the Centre’s research leaders, including Professor Paul Salmon, Dr Gemma Read, Dr Natassia Goode, and Dr Nicholas Stevens. It will provide insights and knowledge into the value, outcomes and opportunities of practice-based research and development in HFE and STS.

Outcomes

Across the three days attendees will hear from researchers and industry about the impact HFE and STS can make.

This event is essential for individuals and organisations that work in safety critical domains; including those involved in HFE, safety management, accident analysis, incident reporting and learning, risk assessment, hazard analysis, and systems analysis and design.

Registered attendees come from a diverse range of industries and organisations; such as from QANTAS and the Outdoor Education Group.

Further, the event will be of benefit for those interested in practical insights and approaches for exploring and understanding the design of teams, organisations, plant, infrastructure and all kinds of systems, which are resilient, efficient and optimise performance.

Some of the outcomes of the three days will include:

• Practical guidance on ways in which to ensure safety management systems consider key human factors issues
• Step-by-step guidance for applying a range of HFE and systems methods for the evaluation and design of complex systems
• How to use the principles of systems thinking to evaluate and enhance your own incident reporting and investigation system
• Provide a structured means for identifying and addressing unintended consequences of systems during design and prior to implementation
• Practical ways to use systems methods in the design of efficient and safe urban development and transport infrastructure

For more information, or to register to attend, please visit the Symposium website or contact the Centre.