Operational Readiness for High-Risk Professions

This commentary consists of five peer-reviewed academic articles and a peer-reviewed, single-authored book, describing research which spans diverse professions. Sherpa guiding, homelessness services, global health, dentistry, neurosurgery, and policing—each seeking evidence-based solutions for operational challenges, training improvements, and preservation of expertise. The central focus is on expanding Orlick's mental-readiness model, the ‘Wheel of Excellence,’ originally designed for elite athletes, into a comprehensive ‘Operational Readiness Framework for High-Risk Professions.’ This new framework seeks to enhance performance excellence and optimise frontline operations in high-risk environments by refining training, ensuring consistency, reducing errors, and improving efficiency. This body of work draws lessons from exceptional professionals, evaluating the importance of physical, technical, and mental readiness, while identifying comparable performance indicators. It contributes to applied psychology and professional practice by developing specialised training tools and constructing a generalisable framework tailored to high-risk professions, grounded in sport psychology and wellbeing theories. The evidence is presented sequentially, linking four decades of research and practical expertise on how exceptional practitioners in public health and safety, psychosocial, medical, and protective services prepare for their roles. It also considers the complex interplay between high performance, frontline stress, and overall wellbeing. The research is built on three foundational pillars: performance excellence, preparedness, and professional specificity. A four-tiered appraisal approach—Pre-analysis, Critical Appraisal Skills Programme (CASP) checklist, template analysis, and immersion-crystallisation—is used to critically analyse, synthesise and integrate the six publications, revealing cross-cutting issues and themes not apparent when examining a single profession. Reflexivity is woven throughout, acknowledging the positions, assumptions, and beliefs influencing the work. The commentary concludes by discussing limitations, strengths, anticipated future steps, and final reflections. It explores interprofessional lessons, new theories, and practical ways to address global security challenges using the Operational Readiness Framework.