Bridge Resource Management in Six Short Modules: Start Here

What Bridge Resource Management Is

Bridge resource management is the use of everything available to a bridge team — people, information, equipment and time — to keep a ship safe. It is not a separate skill from navigation. It is how navigation gets done by more than one person.

What The Regulations Say, And What We Could Not Confirm

We checked this carefully, because it is easy to overstate.

• The STCW 2010 (Manila) amendments were adopted in June 2010, entered into force on 1 January 2012 and required full compliance by 1 January 2017. They added training requirements for bridge and engine-room resource management and for leadership and teamworking skills.
• Britannia P&I Club summarises five BRM principles from the STCW competence table for officers in charge of a navigational watch: allocation, assignment and prioritisation of resources; effective communication; assertiveness and leadership; obtaining and maintaining situational awareness; and consideration of team experience. This course follows those five.
• Officers show competence through approved BRM training, approved in-service experience or approved simulator training, and many administrations accept only an approved course.
• What we could not confirm: we found no standalone IMO resolution on bridge resource management. The IMO model course on ship simulator and bridge teamwork (Model Course 1.22) is often cited by training providers, but we did not see it. We did not see the Code text itself, so the exact table and section references should be checked against the Convention before they are quoted.
• Pilots: IMO Resolution A.960 (2003) covers training, certification and operational procedures for pilots.
• DP: the IMO guidelines on DP operator training (MSC.1/Circ.738/Rev.2) sit in the non-mandatory part of the training framework. DP training is largely governed by industry schemes, such as the Nautical Institute scheme and IMCA’s code of practice on the training and experience of key DP personnel (M117).

The Course

A One-Page Bridge Team Brief

This is our own synthesis from the cases in this course, not a regulatory form. Use it at the start of a watch, before a pilot, a close approach or a DP operation. It takes two minutes.

1. The plan. Where are we going, how, and what do we expect?
2. The limits. What would make us stop or change the plan? Write it as a number or something you can see.
3. The roles. Who has the con, who is the lookout, who is on the radio, who is checking the plot?
4. The experience. Who is new to this ship, this area or this operation? What does each person need?
5. The talk. What do we call out, and how do we read it back?
6. The challenge. ‘If you think I am wrong, tell me. If I say I know, tell me again.’
7. The contingency. What is the first thing we do if control, position or a sensor is lost?

Related Human Factors Guides

• Authority gradient
• Overload and underload
• Decision bias
• Situational awareness in three levels
• Fatigue and the watch

Test Your Knowledge

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Start Here

• Module 1: Allocate, Assign and Prioritise
• Module 2: Say It, Repeat It, Confirm It
• Module 3: Leading and Speaking Up
• Module 4: Keep the Picture
• Module 5: Know Your Team
• Module 6: Putting It Together