Abstract:
In the context of clinical practice, situational awareness refers to conscious awareness
(knowledge), which is a mental model of a given clinical situation in terms of its elements and the
significance of their interrelation. Situational awareness (SA) facilitates clinical reasoning, diagnostic
accuracy, and appropriate goal-directed performance, and it enables clinicians to immediately adapt
treatment strategies in response to changes in clinical situational actualities and to modify the
course of goal-directed activities accordingly. It also helps clinicians prepare future operational
plans and procedures based on the projection of situational developments. SA, therefore, is an
important prerequisite for safe clinical procedures. The purpose of this narrative review is to highlight
certain cognitive and external (environmental) situational factors that influence the development
of situational awareness. Understanding the dynamic, adaptive, and complex interactions between
these factors may assist clinicians and managers of healthcare systems in developing methods aimed
at facilitating the acquisition of accurate clinical situational awareness and, in turn, may bring about
a reduction in the incidence of SA, diagnostic, and operational errors.
