Friday, November 23, 2012

Incident Command System Training Makes A Difference

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By Faith Lynch


Many companies have procedures set up to handle any emergencies. There are generally employees which are trained to administer emergency aid. If there are injuries these employees will be the first responders. Procedures are usually in place to safely evacuate in cases of a fire. Areas can be designated as storm shelters when there is tornado or other inclement weather episode. When any emergencies occur the proper people are moving into action. This example is just a small version of what happens at a national position. Incident Command System Training is necessary for optimizing process effectiveness.

This system was generated by the federal emergency management agency. They are more commonly known as FEMA. It contains a hierarchy which is led by an incident commander. The hierarchy splits into specific areas. These are safety, operations, logistics, finance, planning, and public information. The areas include paramedics, firefighters, doctors, city planners, policemen, and others from the local to the federal levels. Flexibility is always important.

An incident command system is a designed way for synchronizing individuals that respond to tragedies. Recently the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy along the east coast of the United States has brought to light continued need for responder organization. Weeks after the hurricane thousands are still lacking the basic utilities such as clean water and electricity. But this situation does not exist because of soft or nonexistent efforts by responders.

An incident command system is great to have. But just like the success of executing a football play depends on how well it is understood and practiced, the incident command system executables need to go beyond paper and be trained. And this is a practice that is needed often.

One of the problems with disasters is there is no means of knowing exactly what will happen and to what extent. In the cases of hurricanes there is understanding of size and area where it will travel. Beyond that it is impossible to determine, for example, how long it will take to restore the utilities afterwards.

Years ago Hurricane Katrina battered the United States gulf coast. FEMA was heavily criticized for what many thought was poor response time afterwards. There is little doubt that great lessons were learned during this situation. The entire process would be overhauled.

With every event, whether earthquake or storm related, there will be something which can be improved on. It is tough learning at the expense of the difficulties of others. As long as improvements continue the plan will be better prepared for protecting others in the future.

Incident command system training should not be a difficult endeavor. This is true since fire fighters, for example, already know how to fight fires. Police officers, electricians, and paramedics also know how to do their jobs. The need is in reminding everyone of the steps to take, how the chain of command is laid out, and how authority would be followed. These simple yet important reminders and the resolve to work as one will help save human lives and bring forth solutions which will make difficult situations better.




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