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Since its inception, a primary goal of the Fatigue Countermeasures Group has been to return the information obtained through research and other activities to the operational community. Enough scientific data has been collected to create the first Education and Training Module on fatigue in flight operations. The Module is entitled, "Alertness Management in Flight Operations," and includes basic information about fatigue, sleep, sleepiness, and circadian rhythms. It describes how flight operations affect these physiological factors, identifies some of the misconceptions about fatigue in aviation, and offers countermeasure recommendations. The approximately 1.5 hour live presentation includes an opportunity for discussion to provide examples of how to apply the information to specific types of flight environments. The presentation is complemented by a NASA/FAA Technical Memorandum that includes the visual materials from the presentation and appendices that provide information on sleep disorders, sleeping pills, relaxation strategies, recommended readings, and operational summaries from NASA Technical Memoranda. The Module is intended for everyone in the aerospace industry, such as line pilots, flight attendants, schedulers, airline management, federal regulators, safety investigators, etc.
The Fatigue Module has now been presented over 40 times to more than 2,500 individuals. These have included presentations at air carriers, safety forums, military groups, the National Transportation Safety Board, pilot unions, and industry groups. The response continues to be enthusiastic with major carriers such as American, Northwest, United, and UPS having implemented the Fatigue Module into their regular training programs. By the end of 1997, more than 50,000 industry personnel were expected to have received this training information.
The Fatigue Module is transferred to the industry through a 2-day "train the trainers" workshop held at NASA Ames Research Center. At the end of 1997, 28 workshops have been held. A total of 582 individuals have attended the workshops representing more than 250 organizations including military and government agencies, and commercial and corporate aviation. We have had participants from around the world representing 17 foreign countries. Following the success of the NTSB/NASA symposium in November of 1995, interest has spread throughout the transportation and related industries and we have since added attendees from rail, marine, highway, pipeline and shiftwork environments to our honor roll.
Researchers with the Fatigue Countermeasures Group created all of the content and visual materials for the live presentation, as well as the accompanying NASA/FAA Technical Memorandum (in press), and continue to provide workshops on implementation for interested parties in the transportation industry. Four workshops are tentatively scheduled for 1998, with the first to occur in February. The goal is to educate individuals about the factors that can create fatigue in flight or 24-hr operations and provide training on specific fatigue countermeasure strategies.