Workers are exposed to hazards in confined spaces at Superfund sites and waste treatment plants and during emergency or disaster response in ever increasingly complex scenarios due to climate change related challenges like infectious disease, heat, and flooding. There is a need for short, incident-specific awareness training that can be delivered using technology-enhanced training products to support the health and safety of workers exposed to known, emerging, and new hazards from climate change. Existing field training exercises (FTX) for confined spaces provide live operational readiness preparation to perform basic entry and rescue in a standard set of scenarios; however, they are limited in their ability to address the full range of health and safety threats facing workers. Therefore, emergency response training organizations need a cost-effective training solution that increases the stakes and authenticity of simulations to better equip trainees to remain safe and effective when they are in the field. We will extend Charles Riverâs existing hazardous material (HAZMAT) and hazardous waste operations and emergency response (HAZWOPER) training toolâdeveloped with support from the National Institute Environmental Health Science Worker Trainer Program (NIEHS WTP) and our partnership with The New England Consortiumâto design Immersive Modular Preparedness Tutor for Confined Spaces Training (IMPRINT Confined Spaces). IMPRINT Confined Spaces uses narrative case study adaptive training with a mixed reality experience that combines physical and virtual environments to increase the stakes, authenticity, and training scenarios available to training organizations. We will extend IMPRINTâs capabilities through the development of an intelligent tutoring system tailored to the needs of adult learners, providing a strong theoretical basis to our training systemâs continued development.
Public Health Relevance Statement: Project Narrative In IMPRINT Confined Spaces, Charles River Analytics will provide a portable, immersive, and intelligent mixed reality (MR) training system to support existing training organizations and consortia as they adapt to evolving challenges due to climate change. Results from this Phase I effort will include a prototype system that will complement existing training and be evaluated for skill transfer under a follow-on Phase II effort. IMPRINT Confined Spaces will enable instructors to provide engaging, realistic, and adaptive intelligent virtual training, improving worker health and safety.
Project Terms: 21+ years old; Adult Human; adulthood; Adult; Awareness; Case Mixes; Communicable Diseases; Infectious Disease Pathway; Infectious Diseases; Infectious Disorder; Complement; Complement Proteins; Educational Curriculum; Curriculum; lesson plans; Decision Trees; Disasters; Emergency Situation; Emergencies; Environment; Equipment; Exercise; Floods; Flooding; Hazardous Substances; HAZMAT; Hazardous Materials; haz mat; Health; Imagination; Intelligence; Investments; Learning; Manikins; Mannequins; Manuals; Methods; Persons; New England; Northeastern United States; Paper; Photogrammetry; Plants; Play; Role; social role; Safety; Technology; Training Activity; training module; case report; Case Study; improved; Phase; Evaluation; Training; Exposure to; tool; Life; programs; Complex; Protocols documentation; Protocol; System; 3-Dimensional; 3-D; 3D; three dimensional; instructor; Physical environment; experience; waste treatment; hazard; Confined Spaces; skills; simulation; response; software development; develop software; developing computer software; portability; superfund site; Enhancement Technology; Preparedness; Readiness; Address; virtual library; Adherence; Preparation; preparations; Process; Development; developmental; National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences; NIEHS; vector; cost; virtual; designing; design; climatic changes; global climate change; climate change; cost effective; innovate; innovative; innovation; open source; haptics; prototype; public health relevance; flexible; flexibility; operations; operation; Emergency response; extreme heat; tutorial support; tutoring; equipment training; mixed reality; Infrastructure; intelligent tutor; intelligent tutoring system; virtual environment; HAZMAT worker; haz mat worker; hazardous substances worker; hazardous materials worker; HAZWOPER; Hazardous Waste Operations and Emergency Response; worker safety; workfor
