Difficult decisions: A simulation that illustrates cost effectiveness of farm safety behaviors

A paper-and-pencil simulation exercise depicts the difficult decisions of a farm family as they struggle to work safely while trying to expand farm size, maintain production, cope with labor shortages, bad weather and equipment problems. Response patterns of 34 persons mimic choices of other farmers faced with real-life decision alternatives like those depicted in the exercise. Farmers judged the exercise as authentic and useful for teaching them relationships among workload, stress, economics, safety, and injury prevention as an integral part of farm planning and management. Many reported that the exercise convinced them to make safety a higher priority.