2003 IMTA Proceedings - International Military Testing Association

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situations and severe time pressure (e.g., military operational environment, medical emergency
departments). Stress exposure training (SET) reduces stress through a three-phase program
designed to provide trainees with information, skills training, and practice. SET improves
performance by providing team members with experience in the stressful environment, thereby
helping them learn what to expect. Practice takes place under graduated exposure to stressors.
Documented outcomes of SET include reduced anxiety in stressful situations, increased
confidence, and improved cognitive and psychomotor performance under stress (Driskell &
Johnson, 1998).
Conclusions
As our discussion demonstrates, the military has led the way in developing a set of tools,
methods, and content that focuses on enhancing teamwork. In aviation and healthcare some of
these strategies have been adapted, or a more accurate characterization is that aviation and
healthcare have developed their own similar approaches. With that in mind, we now turn to the
cases of aviation and healthcare and briefly examine current practices in each of these industries
and then highlight several areas where we see great opportunities to transition findings from
military research.
CASE STUDIES
Aviation
Current Practices. For over thirty years, team performance has been a central focus of
commercial aircrew training. This training, which is known as Crew Resource Management
(CRM) training, initially focused on changing pilot attitudes through in-class lectures,
demonstrations, and discussion among aircrew members (Helmreich, Merritt, & Wilhelm, 2000).
Over the years, CRM training has evolved into its current form today under the Federal Aviation
Administration’s (FAA) Advanced Qualification Program (AQP). Unlike traditional pilot
training under CFR 14 Part 121, AQP integrates CRM principles with technical skills training
through the entire training curriculum. Team training under AQP primarily relies on two
strategies, team coordination training (TCT) and simulator-based training. In fact under AQP,
aircrews are actually evaluated on their CRM and technical skills in the simulator during an endof-training
Line Operational Evaluation (LOE) which is used to certify their airworthiness
(Federal Aviation Administration, 1990).
Possible Transitions. Unlike other high-risk industries, aviation has been one of the
leaders in attempting to understand and enhance team performance (Helmreich et al., 2000).
However, as we have noted throughout, these efforts have occurred in a vacuum and have
“reinvented the wheel” by not transitioning findings and lessons learned from the military.
Based on the current status of military research, we believe that although the science of team
performance is advanced in aviation, aviation could benefit significantly by leveraging lowercost,
team training strategies from the military, to reduce aviation’s over reliance on expensive
simulator training. Granted when training advanced technical skills, high fidelity simulations
will be required, however similar levels of fidelity are not required for training CRM skills.
45 th Annual Conference of the International Military Testing Association
Pensacola, Florida, 3-6 November 2003