Overhauling a Training Program - Part I

By Doug Cline, First Vice President, ISFSI Board of Directors

A training program that is not comprehensive, effective or efficient should be changed! Consider how recent events have impacted our operations. The fire service has taken on emergency medical services, hazardous materials, Weapons of Mass Destruction, and terrorism, just to name a few. The need for training has always been prevalent, but now more than ever.

Still, training doesn’t always receive proper attention. In talking with a lot of departments, from small rural volunteer groups to large municipal departments, training takes a back seat to other tasks in the fire service.

There were 16 Firefighter Life Safety Initiatives published within the last decade by the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation. These initiatives were focused toward the comprehensive improvement and enhancement of safety throughout the fire service.

After all this time, it's amazing how many fire service personnel haven’t heard of these initiatives. They also haven’t heard of the National Firefighter Near-Miss, or participated in a Safety Stand down or a Safety Week. In fact, one department’s training officer asked, “Do these initiatives pertain to training?” The answer is an emphatic YES!

Below are the 16 Firefighter Life Safety Initiatives published by the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation. Only No. 13 is not a training issue.

1. Define and advocate the need for a cultural change within the fire service relating to safety; incorporating leadership, management, supervision, accountability and personal responsibility.

2. Enhance the personal and organizational accountability for health and safety throughout the fire service.

3. Focus greater attention on the integration of risk management with incident management at all levels, including strategic, tactical, and planning responsibilities.

4. All firefighters must be empowered to stop unsafe practices.

5. Develop and implement national standards for training, qualifications, and certification (including regular recertification) that are equally applicable to all firefighters based on the duties they are expected to perform.

6. Develop and implement national medical and physical fitness standards that are equally applicable to all firefighters, based on the duties they are expected to perform.

7. Create a national research agenda and data collection system that relates to the initiatives.

8. Utilize available technology wherever it can produce higher levels of health and safety.

9. Thoroughly investigate all firefighter fatalities, injuries, and near misses.

10. Grant programs should support the implementation of safe practices and/or mandate safe practices as an eligibility requirement.

11. National standards for emergency response policies and procedures should be developed and championed.

12. National protocols for response to violent incidents should be developed and championed.

13. Firefighters and their families must have access to counseling and psychological support.

14. Public education must receive more resources and be championed as a critical fire and life safety program.

15. Advocacy must be strengthened for the enforcement of codes and the installation of home fire sprinklers.

16. Safety must be a primary consideration in the design of apparatus and equipment.

So, what changes have occurred over the last five years in your department? Has the department changed from predominately volunteer to paid, career personnel? Have your training programs changed or been updated? Has your district’s risks changed? All of these issues should force us to take a look at the established program, if there is one. In our increasingly litigious society, standards are changing more rapidly than some fire departments think they can keep up with. This is an unacceptable attitude! 

Does someone in the department have the time to pick up a trade journal and look at how other organizations are adapting? Ever heard of the internet, Facebook, Twitter, or professional organizations like the International Society of Fire Service Instructors or the International Association of Fire Chiefs? Is the old statement, “we have done it this way for 20 years and it works, so we don’t need to change,” still the main words out of veteran firefighters’ mouths? If so, your department needs to be focused on overhauling the training program. 

The Overhaul

Cultural Change for a Safer Fire Service starts with training. The first step is looking at what is already in place in your department. If someone has developed something and it’s working, then maybe all it needs is a little tweak. But remember, there is always room for improvement. If it’s not working, it’s probably because one of the previously mentioned issues has taken place.

Answer the following questions:

• How often are we training? (Frequency)
• How are we training? (Delivery method)
• What are we training on?
• Are we training to current standards and best practices?
• Are there problems such as boredom or attendance issues?
• Do we have instructors who are qualified and competent?

More than likely you will be surprised at the answers you come up with to those six simple questions. Once you know what is happening with the department’s training, it’s time to hit the streets. By hitting the streets, I mean talking to the people who are on the front lines. Anyone can sit behind a desk, at a computer and dream up a schedule on paper that looks good at first glance. Keep in mind, the best sources for information are the firefighters and front-line officers. They have legitimate ideas. They experience the problems first hand. By going to them and finding out what is on their mind, you can find a way to incorporate those issues into the new program for buy in and ownership, which will increase their support for the program. That will go a long way to helping change attitudes.

Secondly, look at the 16 Life Safety Initiatives and see how you can make these challenges come to fruition within your department. These initiatives provide the substantial ground work for helping overhaul your training program. Next, look at the fire service community. Yes, there is a fire service world outside your department, area and state. Find out what everyone else is doing for training.  Most progressive departments will be more than willing to share information. Lastly, begin the grueling task of changing attitudes and managing transition.

As you begin overhauling the program, you will most likely meet strong opposition by some of your personnel and be welcomed with open arms by others. Most individuals push back when it comes to change. Before beginning the task of making sweeping changes, however, I suggest reading the book “Managing Transitions: Making the Most of Change” by William Bridges. This will help you understand the anatomy of change in human beings and give you some outstanding tools to make this process work smoothly for the greater good of the organization.

Next, let’s use written and practical testing. Obviously, written exams test individual’s didactic knowledge and comprehension. When you are out on the streets, you will be shocked to see how many firefighters have not picked up their books since the academy. A pop quiz can lead you to areas that have been overlooked or forgotten because the subject is not a hot topic. Don’t put too much into the raw scores, how well can you expect someone to perform on a test covering such a broad base of subjects without any preparation?

Instead, look for patterns. A high number of people missing the same question should be alarming. Once we sort out areas that need further attention, look at the answers they gave. This could be something as simple as terminology changes, or it could be that the subject is seldom used and we need to go back and refresh our minds, because we as an organization focused on other issues that were the buzz or hot topic.

Practical evaluations should be at a company level. Before starting, it would behoove you to talk to the officers of a company. They may have already identified a weakness and be taking steps to correct it. Start small with skills that we all were evaluated on at the end of our academy. If we are certified as firefighters, at some point we had to be able to do those skills and they form the root that we base everything else on. Later, when the program advances and expands, we can ramp up the scale and complexity of drills.

When test results, meetings, and looking into the magic eight ball are done, we have to take the information we have gathered and apply it. This is where the assignment definitely becomes more than a one-man job! Some departments may have a committee or an entire division assigned to training. More often than not, smaller fire departments put this load on a single officer or instructor.

Don’t be afraid to reach out and connect with those “gifted” individuals you met on the streets; you might just identify a future instructor or two. Someone has to be the point man, so remember to lead from the front. A ranking officer helps in our paramilitary organization, because eventually we all will face problems or need to sell the information to the command staff that develops policies and procedures.

Editor’s Note: This is the first part of Doug Cline’s two-part series, “Overhauling a Training Program.”