Symposium Abstracts & Schedule
WRMC 5th Annual Adventure Risk Research Symposium 2023
Join
us online:
|
Meeting
URL: |
https://algonquincollege.zoom.us/j/97808505899?pwd=UHcwd3JpU0NhSlJlSjEwNHNKa0Q3UT09
|
|
Meeting ID: |
978 0850 5899 |
|
Password: |
282358 |
Please join us for the 5th annual Adventure
Risk Research Symposium. Our line up and schedule:
3:00pm – Introductions and Overview
3:05pm – Presentation 1 – Ryan et al
3:25pm – Presentation 2 – Brendan and Stu
3:45pm – Presentation 3 – Clare and Denise
4:05pm – Presentation 4 – Soumya et al
4:20pm – Presentation 5 – Jeff and Jon
4:40pm – Presentation 6 – Stu
5:00pm – Presentation 7 – Kate
5:20pm – Wrap and Finish
Decision-Making
in Early-Stage Backcountry Skiers and Snowboarders
Ryan Butler, M.A.
Laura
Maguire, PhD
Denise
Mitten, PhD
Given the
recent rise and interest in backcountry skiing and snowboarding, it is
understandable to wonder if this new population is adequately experienced
and prepared to travel through complex terrain. The avalanche education
industry has done a fair job of demonstrating the importance of proper
education, but there are other barriers and decision-making factors that exist
within this lesser experienced community. This study involved spending time
with the backcountry community to understand the factors that affected their
decision-making processes before and during backcountry activity. Results
showed that they are more nuanced in their processes and preparations than originally expected.
Exploring
the Impact of Wildfires on Outdoor Adventure Programs
Brendan Madden
Stuart Slay, M.A.
Wildfires are
expected to increase in frequency and severity because of the warming climate
and forest management practices over the past 100 years. As wildfires increase,
so does the risk of encountering wildfire in the backcountry. At the same time,
more is becoming known about the short and long -term impacts of smoke on human
health. However, the extent that wildfires and smoke affect outdoor and
adventure programs in North America is unknown. This paper piloted a small
survey to explore the impact of climate change-driven fires and smoke on
program operations and indicates that the historic and ongoing 2023 Canadian
wildfire season impacted programming in Canada and the United States. Several
recommendations are made to better understand the impact of fires on programs,
and to accelerate the sector’s mitigation of wildfire and smoke risk.
Ready to talk: Practitioner needs following
fatal outdoor and adventure program incidents.
Clare Dallat, PhD
Denise Mitten, PhD
Deb Ajango, M.S.
Globally and despite best efforts, fatal incidents continue to
occur in outdoor and adventure programs. In addition to the tragic outcomes for
those directly involved, their families, friends and community, these incidents
can also have long term adverse impacts on the health, wellbeing, and
performance of practitioners. This paper reports on an analysis of 64 fatal
incidents in outdoor and adventure programs across multiple countries. Results
indicate that staff across the work system experience emotional distress and
largely cope with the impacts of these fatal incidents on their own. Their
subsequent work performance appears likely negatively impacted. Practitioner
recommendations for supporting those involved in fatal incidents is explored.
The state of
safety and risk management in outdoor adventure in India
Soumya
(Joti) Mitra, M.A.
Tanya Ginwala, M.S.
Denise Mitten, PhD
Shantanu Pandit, M.B.A
For the last
three decades, India has experienced rapid growth in outdoor adventure fields.
The adventure tourism industry is booming with the establishment of national
and international organizations offering a variety of outdoor trips. However,
the surge in outdoor adventure activities has led to an increase in critical
incidents, primarily attributed to inadequate structured training in risk
management, national safety standards, education, and awareness, as well as the
safety culture of the society. Recent initiatives at both the central and state
government and non-government levels focus on promoting sustainability and safe
practices in adventure tourism. Efforts to establish safety standards by some
state governments, alongside national activity skill standards for various
adventure roles, including adventure travel guides, high altitude trekking
guides, ropes course instructors, rafting guides, mountaineering instructors,
ski instructors, and other activity instructor roles have been implemented. However,
the effectiveness of these standards hinges on their adoption by adventure trip
organizations, necessitating a paradigm shift in training approaches and safety
culture. As part of this changing landscape, both international and national
accreditations are becoming increasingly important markers of safety and
quality in the outdoor adventure sector. This paper provides an exploration of
these multifaceted developments and challenges in India, shedding light on the
current state of safety standards, risk management, and societal culture within
India's rapidly growing outdoor adventure sector. Authors connect (examine the
intersection of) physical, social, emotional, and spiritual safety.
Mountain Bike Trail Difficulty Rating Systems: Persistent issues and
potential resolution
Jeff Jackson, PhD
Jon Heshka
The relatively short history of the sport of mountain
biking shows rapid evolution in bicycle technology and a commensurate and
corresponding demand for more challenging trails. The earliest attempts to
categorize trails, rate their difficulty, and communicate that information to
users splintered into numerous regional and local approaches. The lack of
standardization created a lack of consistency in trail ratings and confusion to
riders over what the ratings meant. With the more recent involvement of
commercial lift accessed bike parks and government recreation policy directing
trail development, there is new demand for consistent, cross-jurisdiction trail
difficulty rating systems. This three-part research project started with a
comprehensive jurisdiction review of trail rating approaches that identified
inconsistencies, interviewed expert trail managers and builders to identify
issues in rating mountain bike trails, and analyzed unrelated adventure
activity difficulty rating models to inform alternative solutions to emergent
difficulty rating issues. Rating issues are discussed in detail, with
recommended key rating principles informed by systems thinking and alternative
approaches to relating trail difficulty.
What’s Next?
Thirty Years of WRMC
Stuart Slay, M.A.
The WRMC was founded as a forum to educate, share, and increase
the overall quality of risk management practices across the outdoor and
adventure program sector. In the two years preceding the first WRMC, the
founders identified 24 distinct concerns facing their organizations. This paper
compares 30 years of WRMC topics to the 24 original concerns and identifies
emergent themes and contemporary questions central to the role of risk
management in outdoor and adventure programs. Increasing trends are identified,
such as mental health- and inclusion-related topics, and emerging trends for
employment law- and wildfire-related discussions. Questions for the industry
are presented, such as the utility for industry-wide incident data and need for
other safety indicators. This paper calls for the pursuit of a research agenda
for risk and safety management that supports the increasingly complex variables
associated with outdoor and adventure programs.
A Research Proposal: Safety in Scientific
Fieldwork with Methods from Wilderness Risk Management.
Kate Thompson, PhD
Fieldwork is crucial for scientific training and
research, yet the academic world lacks consistent risk mitigation standards,
leading to incidents in remote research sites. The Scientist Adverse Field
Experiences Research (SAFER) project aims to create a comprehensive dataset on
fieldwork incidents, akin to outdoor activity industry risk reporting
standards. This research will: 1) establish a large cross-disciplinary incident
database, 2) categorize incident types, causal factors, and protective measures
and 3) explore lasting impacts on scientists' well-being and careers. We will
identify high-risk groups, determine correlations and consequences, and develop
solutions. This systems-thinking approach will improve how we analyze and
manage risk in academic fieldwork, providing a framework for recognizing
patterns and promoting best practices. Ultimately, SAFER seeks to enhance
safety in fieldwork and transform how safety concerns are addressed in
wilderness research settings.
Socials – LinkedIn
We’re
ready to go for next week’s 5th Annual WRMC Adventure Risk Research
Symposium! The peer reviews are completed, and presenters are ready to hit the online
waiting room! This year, we’ve got new and super interesting topics from across
the globe with researchers and practitioners sharing a broad array of new and
very relevant topics. Here’s a snippet:
·
Decision
making in early-stage backcountry skiers and snowboarders
·
Practitioner
needs identified from an analysis of 64 fatal outdoor and adventure program
incidents
·
An
examination of 30 years of Wilderness Risk Management Conference topics to the
original 24 concerns first identified in 1994
·
The
state of safety and risk management in India
·
Issues and potential resolutions surrounding mountain bike trail difficulty
rating systems
·
Safety in scientific fieldwork and the potential application of methods
from Wilderness Risk Management
·
An exploration of the
impact of wildfires on outdoor and adventure programs
The important details:
Date: Tuesday 17th October
Time: 3:00pm – 5:20pm Pacific Standard Time (Portland,
Oregon).
Cost: None – Totally free
Anything else? Tell your friends who work in the
outdoor and adventure programs sector. Get up early, stay up late. You’ll learn
a lot from what research is occurring around the world right now. It’ll be
recorded, and link will be shared afterwards.
Please support these researchers who are openly
sharing their work to facilitate the continuous improvement of our whole
sector.
2021 Adventure
Risk Research Symposium
Abstracts
What We Can Learn from Environmental and Outdoor Education during COVID-19:
A Lesson in Participatory Risk Management
Thomas Beery, Ed.D.
Faculty for Teacher Training, Man and
Biosphere Health Research Group, Kristianstad University, Sweden.
Abstract
COVID-19 has impacted education on all levels,
with many institutions turning to online formats to deal with the global public
health crisis. This study aims to carefully consider participatory risk
management, given concerns about the specific impact of COVID-19 upon
environmental and outdoor education. An environmental and outdoor education
expedition-style university-based field course at the Laponia World Heritage
Site provided the context for considering environmental and outdoor education’s
response to COVID-19. Whether or how risk could be effectively managed in the
unique setting during the COVID-19 pandemic was explored using action research
methodology. A combination of systematic instructor observation,
student–instructor communication, and surveys to student participants provided
the data to consider the research question. Outcomes underscore the critical
role of participatory risk management in environmental and outdoor education
settings and highlight the concept of interdependence in environmental and
outdoor education risk management. In addition, the research provides support
for the action research idea of practitioners as researchers.
Parks,
pandemics, and public health: A look at visitation and impacts in the time of
COVID
Andrew
W. Bailey, Ph.D.; UC Foundation Associate Professor of Health & Human
Performance, University of TN, Chattanooga. Andrew-Bailey@utc.edu. (Corresponding
Author).
Gregory
Heath, D.H.Sc., M.P.H.; Professor of Public Health, University of TN,
Chattanooga.
Charlie Mix, GIS lab
director, University of TN, Chattanooga.
Abstract
Outdoor spaces served as
respite during a prolonged pandemic, as residents sought safe places to
exercise, relax, and recreate during various closures. However, apparent
visitation increases are partially attributable to non-uniform responses to the
pandemic, dispersing visitors to rural locations often lacking the personnel
and infrastructure to cope with the multitudes. This phenomenon was further
complicated by potential transmission of a deadly disease to host communities
ill-equipped for such challenges. This study verifies a novel method of
visitation tracking, demonstrating its utility for measuring potential negative
impacts of non-regional visits to rural communities during the COVID pandemic.
Outdoor programmers and land managers should be wary of such impacts and adjust
policies to enhance public health of participants, visitors, and communities.
Led Outdoor
Activity Safety Climate Correlated with Safety Performance Measures
Jeff
Jackson, PhD.
Algonquin
College, Pembroke, Canada
Abstract
This research surveyed ten led outdoor activity
organizations and 506 employees for their perceptions of their organization’s
safety climate. Organization safety climate scores were then correlated with
safety performance measures such as incident reporting and injury rates. Number
of incident reports, average injury rate, and near miss rate had moderate to
weak negative correlations to safety climate. The number of near miss reported
was low compared to the number of injuries and the overall field days.
Reporting culture and near miss data are discussed relative to organization
safety climate.
Suffering in Silence? Second Victims in Outdoor and
Adventure Programs
1,
2Clare Dallat, PhD. 3Denise Mitten, PhD.,
4Deb Ajango, M.S., 5Stuart Slay, M.S.,
1Centre
for Human Factors and Sociotechnical Systems, The University of The Sunshine
Coast, QLD, Australia
2Risk
Resolve, Melbourne, Australia
3Prescott
College, Arizona, USA.
4Alaska
Pacific University, Alaska, USA
5
Student Conservation Association, Washington DC, USA
Abstract
Globally, serious
incidents and near miss events continue to occur in outdoor and adventure
programs. In addition to the injuries and impacts to the immediate victims,
they also have long term adverse impacts on the health, wellbeing and
performance of practitioners. Anecdotal experience by this author team,
spanning across four decades of global practice, observes that practitioners
involved directly (e.g., instructor) and indirectly (e.g., managers and staff)
often experience emotional distress, frequently long lasting, following their
involvement in serious events. The purpose of this paper is to better
understand and address the specific impact of responding to serious incidents
and near miss events on all the outdoor and adventure practitioners involved.
Emphasis is placed on the organizational and industry support needed by
practitioners and how well those needs are currently being met.
What wilderness risks do
we need to manage? A 12-month analysis of led outdoor activity incidents
reported to the Australian National Incident Dataset
Lauren Coventon1,
Scott McLean1, Caroline F. Finch2, Paul M. Salmon1
1University of the Sunshine Coast, Sippy Downs, Australia
2Edith Cowan University, Joondalup, Australia
Abstract
The
Understanding and Preventing Led Outdoor Accident Data System (UPLOADS) is a
state-of-the-art incident reporting and learning system used in Australia to
understand and manage wilderness risk. This paper presents an analysis of adverse
and near miss incidents reported via UPLOADS to the Australian National
Incident Dataset between 2019 and 2020. Incident and participation data were
reported from 21 Australian led outdoor activity providers. In total, 2,125 incidents were reported from
224,060 program participation days, which equates to an incident rate of 9.5
incidents per 1000 program participation days.
The most frequent incident types were injuries (67%) and illnesses
(22%), and 80% of all incidents were minor in severity. An in-depth analysis of incident causation
revealed that there were 4,918 contributory factors associated with a diverse
set of stakeholders from all levels of the led outdoor activity system spanning
government and regulators, LOA providers, schools, participants, and the activity
environment levels. Whilst factors relating to activity participants, leaders
and the activity environment were the most frequently reported, broader
systemic factors around program design, activity centre policy and procedures,
risk assessment, adventure activity standards, and communications with parents
and schools were also identified. In closing we discuss potential systemic
interventions designed to enhance wilderness risk management.
____________________________________________________________________________
The
Remote First Aid Self-Efficacy Scale: Development and Validation of a Novel
Tool for Remote First Aid Training, Evaluation, and Reflection
Jonah
J. D’Angelo, MHK; Jim Little B. Eng; Aaron M. Orkin, MD; David Vanderburgh, MD;
Bruce Oddson, Ph.D.; Vincent Gagnon (student); and Stephen D. Ritchie, Ph.D.
The purpose of
this paper is to share the story of the development and validation of the
Remote First Aid Self-Efficacy Scale (RFA SES) for use as an evaluation and
reflection tool. The RFA SES is a 30-item self-report scale that was rigorously
developed in response to emerging evidence showing that self-efficacy is
predictive of performance. Initially, the RFA SES was developed as a culturally
appropriate evaluation tool in a Community-Based Emergency Care course in
collaboration with a remote Indigenous community and a regional government
department in northern Canada. Thus, the RFA SES was intentionally designed to
aid in the training of remote first responders by giving them an understanding
of their perceived self-efficacy in advance of real-life emergency situations. In a recent validation study involving 448
trained alumni from Wilderness Medical Associates (WMA) and 1106 students from
Laurentian University (LU), participants completed an online questionnaire at
two different periods (T1 & T2).
Following data collection, psychometric analysis confirmed that the
30-Item RFA SES is a unidimensional, valid, and reliable scale to measure the
construct of remote first aid self-efficacy.
Through further analysis, using only the WMA data (n=448), a shorter
15-item RFA SES was developed, and preliminary analysis also indicated that it
is a reliable and valid scale. Possible
applications of the RFA SES in wilderness first aid training and evaluation
contexts will be discussed.