Living on the edge: How to prepare for it?

Abstract

IntroductionIsolated, confined, and extreme (ICE) environments such as found at Antarctic, Arctic, and other remote research stations are considered space-analogs to study the long duration isolation aspects of operational space mission conditions.MethodsWe interviewed 24 sojourners that participated in different short/long duration missions in an Antarctic (Concordia, Halley VI, Rothera, Neumayer II) or non-Antarctic (e.g., MDRS, HI-SEAS) station or in polar treks, offering a unique insight based on first-hand information on the nature of demands by ICE-personnel at multiple levels of functioning. We conducted a qualitative thematic analysis to explore how sojourners were trained, prepared, how they experienced the ICE-impact in function of varieties in environment, provided trainings, station-culture, and type of mission.ResultsThe ICE-environment shapes the impact of organizational, interpersonal, and individual working- and living systems, thus influencing the ICE-sojourners' functioning. Moreover, more specific training for operating in these settings would be beneficial. The identified pillars such as sensory deprivation, sleep, fatigue, group dynamics, displacement of negative emotions, gender-issues along with coping strategies such as positivity, salutogenic effects, job dedication and collectivistic thinking confirm previous literature. However, in this work, we applied a systemic perspective, assembling the multiple levels of functioning in ICE-environments.DiscussionA systemic approach could serve as a guide to develop future preparatory ICE-training programs, including all the involved parties of the crew system (e.g., family, on-ground crew) with attention for the impact of organization- and station-related subcultures and the risk of unawareness about the impact of poor sleep, fatigue, and isolation on operational safety that may occur on location.

Arctic Instincts? The Late Pleistocene Arctic Origins of East Asian Psychology

“…The personnel's adaptive challenge of maintaining harmony and group cohesion is reported to be the same challenge faced by the Inuit, as polar winter often makes early evacuation and transportation logistically difficult if not impossible, thus modern polar wintering teams are isolated and confined to their station or trek tents in the same way Inuit are (Rothblum, 1990). Prolonged close quarters confinement also exacerbates any conflict by the enforced contact of the crew members (Boag, 1952), and causes crew members to lose their ability to put issues in perspective "goldfish bowl" and small conflicts can easily become disproportionate (Van Puyvelde et al 2022). In the pre-internet era, wintering groups would be even more isolated and cut off from external communication and help.…”

“…Collectivistic thinking was noted to have "evolved spontaneously and sometimes compensated for the encountered difficulties, both in station and polar trek missions." (Van Puyvelde et al, 2022).…”

“…There were reports of modern polar personnel facing the same adaptive challenges as Inuit in the deceptive and monotonous visual landscape of polar environments (Van Puyvelde et al, 2022). Rothblum (1990) noted that blizzards, whiteouts, and lack of clear landmarks cause modern personnel to consistently fail in accurately estimating sizes and distances of objects, which they found irritating.…”

Walk the line: a systemic perspective on stress experienced by emergency medical personnel by comparing military and civilian prehospital settings

“…However, research that compares the use of coping strategies over different training and operational contexts is rather rare and remains too often restricted to either a civilian or military context. As a consequence, a lack of cross-pollination between both contexts might narrow the information requisite for generating improvements in training, prevention, and support programs ( 44 , 45 ). Moreover, the majority of these studies are designed from an intra-psychological perspective (e.g., focusing on the PTSSs, burnout symptoms, or coping) without mapping the professional and personal wider system.…”