[What Would You Do?]Training Officer

[EMTbravo 312]

Scenario Submitted By:x635

You've just been appointed Training Officer for your department. Your smaller department provides Fire, Rescue, And EMS services, and does approx 300 fire and 500 EMS calls a year. Your Chief has complete confidence in you and given you the go-ahead for anything you might feel is neccasary, and you have unlimited funding thanks to a special grant. The former TO was never around,and when he was didnt do much, and many members of your department are new, or older and have gotten lazy or bored and non complacent. What would your primary intial goals be as it relates to improving training and boosting enthusiasm for operations as a TO for your FF's?

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[FF402 133]

I'd probaly try to identify what our weakest area was, and try to improve on that, first and foremost. I know the bread and butter skills can be boring, but there's got to be a way to make those kind of drills more interesting.

[HFD23 37]

i personally know this situation very well.. in hartsdale i am the volunteer training officer and equipment officer, during my time in the department we do basiclly the same drills over and over, we train every tuesday of the year aside from major holidays and such. but i personally have gotten sick of the same old stuff, we always do burns in the burn building at the training center and smoke house and so on, we alway go into the same main door, and do the same old stuff. till last week, my self as well as the Lt. of our truck company wrote several scenerios to run through, for search and rescue, we entered the burn building from different doors, including the back stair case, after entry, doors were blocked, stair cases raised symbolizing collapse, several missing member, fast team operations, maydays, and a detialed accountability command board were set up... using all hartsdale personel. it was a very detialed drill that went alittle beyond basics not just the normal go in find the victum searches, the different entry points and different missing members and mock scrips kept it interesting and involved every member in some capacity in every evolution... over all it went very well and we plan to continue to go more indetialed in the near future.

[Remember585 815]

Speaking as a Training Officer responsible for a Department of over 150, I know exactly what this scenario feels like. Until I feel confident in doing something myself, I refuse to teach it. You will never see me teaching rope rescue, even though I have over 60 hours of State Training. Know why? My knot-tying ability is limited to my boots! A good training officer knows their material so well, that the student will almost thing you are either overconfident or full of sh-t! Its the truth. I have been a student in so many classes, and I always find that the instructors who know the materal real well generally have a confidence about them. And they should, because we don't want to be taught by someone reading out of the book, or who keeps asking the class questions that you know the instructor doesn't know.

Those of you whom are Training Officers - realize this; You are being put in a position that will mold the future operations of your outfit. We are in a business where "we practice as we play, and play as we practice." What our mind is trained to do on the drill yard is how we will react on the fireground. Pass along the knowledge and confidence that you have, its your job.

Big Daddy Says - Stay low, stay safe, and get your a** home!

[BFD1054 1,552]

To start, i would just like to say that everyone has made some real good points so far. I too have been getting quite bored with the same old drills. I was getting bored as a firefighter and i recently became a Lt and i am still bored. We have been lucky in that we have been getting a lot of new members, most of whom are young, high school age. I joined the FD when i was 16, so i know exactly what its like. I got involved because i had family/friends involved in the fire service. When you are still in school, it is hard to commit time to an organization because you have a million things going on at once (homework, sports, friends, etc.). To be honest, i was too busy partying and having fun during high school, so i wasn't really active until i graduated. I took Essentials within the first few months of joining, but didn't start taking more classes until i was out of high school. My point is, no matter what age, we are all busy, and volunteering can be hard. As many of you said, i would become bored and tired of the same old "routine" drills, and many nights wouldn't bother coming to drills. Drilling and training is essential to any emergency service organization. Not only is it essential for everyones safety, but it also keeps the interest of newer members. Unfortunately, the WCFTC is under construction and even when we try to "book" the smoke/burn houses, we have no luck. Without the training center, we are forced to train/drill at the firehouse or other locations in the village. Our firehouse is quite small, so our options are limited. We often move all the apparatus out of the bays and "smoke" out the apparatus floor and practice entry & search/rescue drills, which i feel is very important. Sometimes we will add obstacles such as chairs, tables, barrels or other items, which works well. However, after doing these scenarios so many times, the members get to know it like the back of thier hand and it is no longer fun/helpful. As FF402 stated, the bread and butter operations can be boreing, but are equally important. We recently built a roof similator in the rear of our firehouse. It is approximately 15' high on its highest side with a sloped roof. Below the "roof" is a "room" that is approx. 6' by 8' complete with "real" door and window. This is a great training tool for roof & ladder operations. A suggestion would be to begin your drill with the bread and butter text-book/overhead info and then go outside, gear-up and practice what you learned hands-on. Even though the FTC is somewhat OOS for now, does not mean you can't do hands-on training. You don't have to actually build something, but it is very easy to set up a temporary mask-confidence course inside or outside at your firehouse. Again, SCBA goes back to the basics, but it is a very important thing to know (could be your life) and a in-house course can be a fun, easy way to get comfortable w/SCBA. You could also rely on other training centers such as Rockland, Putnam or Dutchess. Of course we would all rather use Westchesters because its closer and it is "ours." We (Buchanan) are in the process of signing guys up for the flashover simulator at the Rockland FTC (very good class/experience, i highly recommend it). Remember585 brought up a great point....never teach something you are not comfortable with yourself, that is just asking for trouble. We train to be ready for "the real thing" but we do not want members to ever get hurt, especially in training. Before we do a drill, we ensure each member is comfortable with each scenario. If a member is afraid of heights, we do not make him/her do ladder/roof ops, if they're not comfortable with a handline, we don't send them into the burn house, etc. By the way John, i hear ya on the ropes & knots, definately not my favorite! Training is everything, so lets all stay on top of it and stay safe!!!

[BFD1054 1,552]

Sorry Seth, i kind of rambled on in my last post. As far as your scenario goes...I would have to say i would take advantage of the "unlimited funding." I would send my active members to as many fire, rescue and ems classes as possible. If we were an actual BLS provider, i would send members to EMT or CFR classes. If we provided "first-reponder" care, i would ensure that my members had a minimum of CPR/AED/First-Aid, and made sure that they re-certed when necessary. I would use the money to send the members through the "basics" to become interior and continue thier training by sending them to "optional" classes such as HAZ-MAT, Truck Ops, Rescue Tech, etc. I would also use the money to buy training supplies such as a "smoke machine," rescue manaquins or even build our own mask-confidence course, roof simulator etc. I would try and obtain cars, trucks and buses for extrication drills, where you could train as both FD and EMS providers. I'd even go as far as using the money to send members to become fire, EMT, CPR, etc. instructors.