My Time At FDIC

So I started this post yesterday, but packing, traveling, and recovering definitely took priority, so here I sit Sunday night reflecting on this past week’s trip.  It’s funny that every year I attend I find myself having a different experience than any other year, but each year is still a GREAT experience!  This year’s focus was two-fold.  The first was introducing my father-in-law to the experience of Indianapolis and FDIC and the second was taking the opportunities given to me by Fire Engineering to share my thoughts and promote my book.

We arrived Tuesday and after checking in took an opportunity to check my computer and make sure it would be perfect for class.  Afterwards we took the opportunity to wander around and found my book on display at hte Fire Engineering booth!  There it was in all it’s glory!  I know that seems silly, but seeing my book on the shelf at a major trade show, really was a bit overwhelming!  We also found the sign that advertised my book signing opportunities. Honestly I think I was more impressed by the names that I was included with then with the fact that I was going to have a book signing.

Because of my schedule this week I wasn’t able to attend a large number of classes (only attended 1). I was able to help my husband get ready for his class (which was a smash hit). I was able to participate in a radio webcast with Mike McEvoy and Robert Raheb (I’ll share the link later). I was able to meet some amazing people! 

My first book signing was Thursday from 11-12.  Here I am:

It was an opportunity to put a face to a book. I actually had two people come and buy my book and ask for my autograph!  My class was Thursday night and was met with great reviews.  I taught on developing strong rehab operations and policies. I’m always happy to share information, but as happens in every class, I’m also just as happy to learn from my students. After class I went and got ready for the Courage and Valor 5K. I had set absolutely no expectations for the run, which was probably the best. I ended up walking some of it, but still finished in a decent time.  I was just happy to have participated in an event that raises money for a great cause and to bring focus to health initiatives for firefighters.

Friday we spent the day wandering through the exhibits. There is always new information, new products, and some great ideas. There are also lots of giveaways and contest to enter (which I LOVE doing).  Come one, you know we all love free stuff! It was nice to relax and take our time walking through. I had my second book signing and while I didn’t get an opportunity to sign any books, I was given a great opportunity to meet and talk to two fire service legends. Paul Combs (best known for his illustrations of issues in the fire service) and Battalion Chief Frank Montagna of FDNY.  These men have had a great impact and took the time to give me comments, ideas, and support for my book and future projects.  It really was an honor!

Saturday was leave time. We got up and did one last sweep through the exhibits. We packed, we entered one last contest, which my husband won and we went home.  The trip home became quite an experience (but that could be a whole separate post).  I’m happy to be home, but truly thankful for the experiences I had and people I interacted with.

I have a few more posts about the week that I’ll share throughout the next few weeks, but until next time…stay safe and don’t forget to follow on twitter (@stickysidedwn).

Friday Five – FDIC Five

So, given that FDIC is only three days away, and I leave next Tuesday (only five days from now) to participate, today’s post is dedicated to five things I hope to do/see/participate in during this year’s FDIC.

Top Five “To-Dos” For FDIC

1.  Teach My Class - This may seem like a simple concept, since that’s really why I’m going, but man do i look forward to teaching. I always come away from my classes feeling like I’ve met some great people, taken away some great ideas, and firmed up why I love doing what i do. The opportunity to teach to a national/international audience is a truly humbling experience and I love doing it each and every time.  If you are attending FDIC, my class is Thursday from 1:15-3:30 in Lucas Oil Stadium Room 10-12

2.  Take AMAZING classes – This conference is an amazing opportunity to take classes from nationally recognized names and from those people who are working their way to that status. It’s an opportunity to hear about programs and initiatives across the country that I might not have been exposed to. Fire Engineering has done a great job of finding a great mix of Emergency Management, Fire, and EMS training opportunities.

3.  Promote my Book – I don’t often like promoting myself, but Fire Engineering has given me a great opportunity two have two book signings during the conference. I will be available on Thursday from 11-12 and Friday from 1-2 to sign copies of my books.  If you already have a copy, bring it!  If you miss me at the Fire Engineering booth, stop me in the hallway and I’ll be happy to sign the book!

4.  Participate in some great events – This year I’m actually participating in the Courage and Valor 5k.  It’s a great opportunity to promote health, recognize a great Fire Service Leader, and hang out with great people.  My goal is to finish the event with a time that beats my split time from the 10K I just participated in, but other than that I look forward to running with some great people and being motivated to keep maintaining my health. Along with that event, I plan on attending the F.O.O.L.S. event on Wednesday night and watching the 9-11 memorial stair climb at Lucas Oil Stadium.

5.  Enjoying time with some amazing people.  Not just the ones I’ll be traveling with, though, but I also look forward to interacting with my fellow Fire and EMS service members, with the amazing employees of Fire Engineering who organize a great conference, meeting some new vendors, interacting with the people of Indianapolis, and truly just enjoying my time surrounded by a great city, wonderful people, and amazing opportunities.

This list may look corny, but this conference is truly a great event and I look forward to it each year!  If you haven’t been, you should definitely plan on attending next year.  The opportunities for learning and interaction are truly too many to number!

Are you going to FDIC?  If so, what are you looking forward to?

Until next time…stay safe and don’t forget to follow on twitter (@stickysidedwn)

What Resources are Out There?

I thought about calling this mental monday, but figured that might not be appreciated by someone who stumbles on this post. Emergency services humor can be kind of sick and twisted to some. Sometimes that’s how we help ourselves and each other.And sometimes the best way to help ourselves is to ask for help from others. That’s when the question comes into play: “What resources are out there?” What do you have access to that can help you deal with the things we see on the job?

One of your first resources should be your company officer. unfortunately not everyone has the opportunity to turn to that person. Whether it’s because of personality conflict or other issues. When this happens, you should have a mentor. Someone who understands the job, someone who understands the situations that can arise. This mentor can be someone who is retired, works in a different department/different station, it doesn’t matter.

The next resource is interdepartmental. I believe that each department (whether individual stations or entire jurisdictions), should have a group of people who members can turn to. i wouldn’t call it a formal debriefing group, but this should serve a method for providers to go to someone they don’t work with on a daily basis. Or in cases where they do not have a mentor or are fairly new to the department, give them people who have training and experience to bounce feelings off of. They may not have formal training and should DEFINITELY be the person that others turn to in the leadership role (whether formal or informal), but they should be there and willing.

Another resource that is out there for help is much more related to the career side.  If your department (whether career or volunteer) has an Employee Assistance Program (EAP), this can provide you information and resources to assist with mental stress.  They are also able to provide assistance with substance abuse, financial concerns, legal concerns, and many other topics. Many departments offer EAPs that provide a few sessions for free, which should definitely assist in getting people to seek help.

Another resources you need to look into is the International Association of Critical Incident Stress Management. Not only do they provide trainings across the country, they also have access to the CISM points of contact for EVERY state.  This can help you find CISM teams after a major incident that might have you looking to conduct a debriefing.

I hope that you NEVER have to access the resources that I’ve mentioned, or other resources that you have in your department. However, you should always have quick access to the resources, should the time come that you do need.

I’d be interested in knowing what other resources you have at your fingertips.  Leave me a comment!

Until next time…stay safe and don’t forget to follow on twitter (@stickysidedwn)!

Fire Department Instructors Conference (FDIC)

Today marks the one month countdown for the 2012 FDIC festivities. I (along with four other family members) will leave my hometown and travel to Indianapolis, Indiana for the annual Fire Department Instructors Conference.  I am honored not only to be able to attend as an instructor for the third year, but also to attend as a new author for Fire Engineering/PennWell Publishers. I have been to numerous conferences, but none like this. The training classes that are offered, the instructors that are brought in, and the vendors that line the exhibit floors are AMAZING, OVERWHELMING, and AWESOME!  Each year I arrive excited for the opportunities and leave overwhelmed with the information I gathered.

As I said, I will be teaching a class.  If you are attending, I would love to have you sit in and join me:

Course Title: Beyond the Water Cooler: EMS Role in Rehab
Course Date: Thursday April 19
Course Time: 1:30-3:15

Two other great courses to attend (forget that they are taught by my husband and my father) are:

Course Title: Engine Company Operations
Instructor: Robby Owens
Course Date:Wednesday April 18
Course Time: 10:30-12:15

Course Title: Emergency Responders vs. Electrical Hazards
Instructor: Frank Cheatham
Course Date: Friday April 20
Course Time: 8:30-10:15

Along with the great training/education opportunities, there are some awesome social networking opportunities, and just some amazing chances to meet other emergency services providers from around the country/world.  This year I will also be participating in the Courage and Valor Fun Run, a 3.1 mile (5K) run through White River State Park. There will also be a 9/11 memorial stair climb. I plan on watching that this year as well!

Even thought it is just 30 days away, there is still time to register and also to find a great hotel room.  Check out this link for some additional information.  http://www.fdic.com/index.html

Hope to see you there!

Until next time…stay safe and don’t forget to follow on twitter (@stickysidedwn)

Friday Five – Five Classes for EMS Providers

Okay, so I don’t normally provide too much background on my choice for Friday Fives, but I have to give a bit of a background to this list.  I had the pleasure of having a telephone conversation with what I call an EMS purist. You know them, those people who will only ever ride on an ambulance, only ever concern themselves with EMS stuff, and never understand the need for anything other than EMS. Don’t get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with that. However, the conversation with this guy made me feel like I’d fallen backwards 10 years in progression fo the system.

This gentleman did not understand why he, an EMS provider, needed to take NIMS training. Ten years after it was put into place, this individual still had not taken any of the NIMS trainings because and I quote “That’s a fire science class and I only run EMS calls”.  Without reaching through the phone and smacking this person, I calmly explained to him that while he may only run EMS calls, he will always work with other members of the emergency services field and that NIMS provides a framework for responding with multiple different agencies. He still didn’t seem to get it, even after I used his own localities recent interaction with state and federal resources as the result of damage from a hurricane.  He didn’t get it when I explained to him that the basics are important and that it actually wasn’t a huge deal because the training is available online, FOR FREE. After finally finishing my phone conversation I was struck by two things:

1.  Some people will just never get it.

2.  There are still EMS providers who believe that the only training they need is first aid based, just as there are probably still fire service members who believe the only training they need is how to put water on the fire.

With those two things in mind, today’s friday five is a list of five classes I believe every EMS provider should have (beyond first aid training), even if they are only riding on a fire truck.

Five Classes for EMS Providers

1.  National Incident Management System (NIMS) - Forget that this is a free course and forget that you don’t even have to get out of your pajamas to take it if you don’t want to. If this course cost and you had to travel, I’d still recommend it. The NIMS training, while not federally mandated, should be made a mandate by agencies for their members. It provides an understanding of the frame-work of response, from the basic to the large-scale incident. It takes out the actual operational efforts and describes the organization fo the efforts and the resources/agencies available. Anyone who might EVER respond to an event should have this training. Check out: http://www.fema.gov/emergency/nims/NIMSTrainingCourses.shtm for more information

2.  Incident Command Systems (ICS) - While NIMS talks about the ICS structure, the application and implementation of ICS is covered in other. Many of the courses offered are actually specific to the field, so you can take an Incident Command/Operations Course aimed at a target audience of EMS providers. This will provide scenarios that are EMS based and allow you to better understand the fact that you have a role in ICS, even if you only ride on the ambulance.  The National Fire Academy (NFA) offers a wide variety of these courses, and is an experience every emergency services member should have!  Visit http://www.usfa.fema.gov/nfa/index.shtm for additional information on National Fire Academy courses

3.  Hazardous Materials Awareness - Every EMS provider should take a hazardous materials awareness course. We need to understand how to recognize a haz-mat situation, how to identify a hazardous material (from a distance) and how to look that same hazardous material up in the Emergency Response Guide (ERG) to assist in the treatment of our patients. This is a course that can be taken online and is often taught in person by the state Emergency Management agency or Fire Programs office.

4.  Vehicle Extrication – This is a hard one to explain. Some of you  readers are actually doing extrication off the ambulance. In some jurisdictions though, extrication is a fire department activity (probably in more localities than there are EMS doing extrication). Even if you never place your hands on a spreader, cutter, ram, etc, you need to understand the process of extrication. Extrication is a patient care driven issue (that’s another argument I could write about). We wouldn’t be doing extrication if there wasn’t a patient in the car. An EMS provider with an understanding of the process of vehicle extrication can be prepared for the impacts on the patient, understand the time issues associated with different techniques, and use their knowledge to provide information to the patient (if conscious) about what the extrication team is doing.

5. Critical Incident Stress Management - This training, whether through International Critical Incident Stress Foundation (ICISF), the Red Cross, or some other agency, provides not only the ability to help others deal with the impacts of the job, but also provides a foundation for recognizing when you are personally impacted as well. We focus so much on the reactive approach (treating things AFTER they happen). If we could provide this training, or even a simpler form, we may be able to PREVENT individuals from being impacted emotionally/mentally by a critical incident.

So, those are the trainings (beyond first aid) that I truly believe EVERY EMS provider should have. You may or may not agree with me, but I think we can all agree, that the training is out there and we should definitely take advantage of it. Why would you not want to be the best provider you can be?

Do you have any classes you would add to this list?  Feel free to share your thoughts here or on twitter!

Until next time, stay safe and don’t forget to follow on twitter (@stickysidedwn)

Could I Have Done More?

My heart is heavy today, which given the fact that it is Valentine’s Day, seems slightly off-balance.  It is heavy because in the last week (actually less) Virginia has lost two responders in Line of Duty Deaths and just today my husband told me about the loss of fellow county Volunteer. While his death was not line of duty, it still was a fellow first responder, someone who I spent many calls with and have many memories about.

It’s hard not to hear these bits of news and not take it personally. You play the “What If It Had Been Me?” or the “I wonder if I know them” cards. You consider how you would respond if it were in your own agency and what you would do if it were your crew, etc. We mourn for the losses of our brothers and at the same time breathe a small and short-lived sigh of relief that it wasn’t us.  And honestly, I think that’s okay.  What’s more important though is that while we celebrate the people who aren’t with us anymore, we take the opportunity to try to prevent it from happening again.  We can NEVER forget the things that the L.O.D.D.s have taught us.  The reports are simple: we don’t wear our seatbelts, we are out of shape, we have a significantly higher rate of suicide than many other professions. Just last year a report was issued focusing on suicides in the fire service (http://lifesafetyinitiatives.com/13/depressionsuicide_summary.pdf).

What do we need to do to make sure we don’t ask ourselves “Could I have done more?” 

1.  Education! Read the trade magazines, the studies, the NIOSH and OSHA reports, the websites.  Hell, you should be reading things about this service every day (or at least every shift). These are people who have learned the hard way and want to make sure that you don’t have to make the same mistake. 

2.  Train!   Once you’ve educated yourself, apply the knowledge through training.  Training is more than reading.  Training is the hands-on application of the skills or lessons you learned from the reading.  Train to recognize when a scene is going to crap and your safety is being compromised.  Train to recognize unsafe fire conditions/unsafe medical patients/unsafe scenes and learn how to handle the situations without becoming a part of the incident.

3.  Man/Woman Up - This might seem like a harsh statement, but TOO many times I’ve watched people go towards that dark corner that we could all potentially end up in after too many bad calls, too many bad days, etc. They get to that breaking point long after they should have stood up and said “Hey, I need help and I can’t do it alone”. Whether you use your agency Employee Assistance Program (EAP), a Critical Incident Stress Management (CISM) system, or even just reach out to a coworker, mentor, loved one, it doesn’t matter.  What matters is the recognition, that if you don’t reach out…the opportunity may not come around for your to reach out again!

4.  Recognize Others Problems - We train for responding to the aftermath on a daily basis.  AFTER the car crash, I will hold C-Spine. AFTER the delivery I will suction the airway. AFTER the fire starts, I will put it out.  AFTER I begin to have issues dealing with the hard stuff, I will seek out help.  Why aren’t we training for the BEFORE.  Train for resiliency (the ability to deal with what we could potentially face on a daily basis). Train to recognize the signs and symptoms of someone else struggling. Train to get help before it’s too late!

5. Follow simple safety precautions. Put your seat belt on, wear your safety best, wear the appropriate equipment….the list goes on.  I could sit here and list way too many safety issues that we neglect to follow on a daily basis and I am one that has this struggle. In the back of the ambulance, i don’t wear my seatbelt. I should, but it’s not habit. I need to make it habit! Make those safety expectations habit, so in the heat of the moment, you don’t forget.

Here are some great sites for additional information: http://www.everyonegoeshome.com/, www.icisf.org, www.nvfc.org.

I know that even following these and other safety recommendations, we will still be left asking ourselves “Could I have done more”?  It’s in our nature. But do your best to not walk away from a situation saying “I didn’t do anything”.

Until next time…stay safe and don’t forget to follow on twitter (@stickysidedwn)

EMS Nutrition – What’s on Your Plate?

As an EMS provider/Firefighter, heck shift worker, finding the ability to eat a well-balanced meal while on shift or at work is definitely not an easy task. My husband and I had a conversation the other day about eating on shift and temptation.  I admit to having a very hard time resisting.  I like food. So, turning down dessert, soda, sweet tea, etc. is hard for me.  And boy, do I LOVE Carbs!  My husband is a much healthier eater than I am. He admits though, that when a 2 a.m. call takes him to the EMS room at the hospital that stocks Ice Cream, self-pity (for being awake at 2 a.m.) makes it easier to choose the Ice Cream as a “midnight” snack than skipping eating anything.  So, what do you do?

Last week’s post talked about writing a food diary. Have you started? If you have, have you looked back at what you are eating?  Now that you have a better idea (don’t stop tracking though), we’ll move on to the next step.

What’s On Your Plate?

When given an opportunity to choose, I’m probably going to choose an extra helping of meat, two starches, and double dessert. Not exactly a “well-balanced” diet.  So, how can I make better choices for each meal?  I use the USDA’s “My Plate”.  You’ve probably heard of the Food Pyramid. The food pyramid shows the amount of servings you would need during each day, not necessarily how to get it over the course of three meals and snacks. 

 

In recognizing that people may not be able to take the Food Pyramid and break it down into individual meals the Federal Government created “My Plate”.  My Plate breaks down what your plate should be filled with at each meal, providing a visual representation of how to fill your plate.

The website: http://www.choosemyplate.gov/ also provides great information on general nutrition and meal planning/eating tips:

Balancing Calories

1.  Enjoy your food, but eat less
2.  Avoid oversized portions

Foods to Increase

1.  Make half of your plate fruits and vegetables
2.  Make at least half your grains whole grains
3.  Switch to fat-free or low-fat (1%) milk

Foods to Reduce

1.  Compare sodium in foods like soup, bread, and frozen meals – and choose foods with low numbers
2.  Drink water instead of sugary drinks

So, start looking at your plate, document what portions you are eating, and keep on making those little changes!

Don’t forget to follow on twitter – @stickysidedwn

You might actually be sick!?!?!

So, the title of this post might seem a little strange, but I promise, keep reading and it will make more sense.  A few weeks ago I was offered the opportunity to participate in an online forum regarding the education of families and shift work staff on the impacts of those who who work shift work and the physical impacts on the shift worker themselves.  Two weeks ago I was able to participate in that webiner. Also involved was a Motorcycle cop from the West Coast, an air traffic controller, a columnist for the Miami Herald (her specialty was work life balance), and the facilitators.  It was a wonderful opportunity to discuss how the shifts we work truly impact us and our families.

Do you consider yourself a “shift worker” or are the hours you work just part of what you do?  Ddid you ever consider that you weren’t meant to work odd shifts?  I was asked during the webinar whether or not I consider my husband’s job shift work and I had to laugh because I don’t. It’s a known schedule where he is gone for 24 hours. When I’m running at the volunteer rescue squad, it’s not a shift, it’s my duty.  Honestly, how many of you consider yourself “shift workers”?  Yeah, it’s a 24 hour (or 12 hour, or 8 hour, or whatever) shift, but it’s just part of the job, just a schedule that is given to you. When you consider the impacts the job/shit places on you physically and mentally and also on your family, it because much more obvious that the job goes beyond the physical dangers that you may face when running calls.  Do you feel excessively tired, have trouble focusing or just overall out of it most of the time?

Did you know that those feelings are actually part of an medical disorder? It’s called Shift Work Disorder. Here is some information on Shift Work Disorder (SWD):

SWD Is Common

• As many as 20% of US workers are involved in some form of shift work, including permanent or intermittent night work, early morning work, or rotating schedules.^1,2
• Approximately 10% to 25% of night-workers and rotating-shift workers have shift work disorder
• This means that up to 1 out of every 4 night- or rotating-shift workers may be suffering from shift work disorder^1-4
• Over 15 million Americans work odd hours or non-traditional shifts, and are “at risk” for SWD.³
• Of these, 3.75 million Americans are estimated to have SWD

Along with the insomnia/sleep issues, there are other areas of your life that SWD can impact. People with shift work disorder may experience:

• Trouble focusing
• Drop in work performance
• Missed family and social activities
• Worsening of heart and stomach disorders
• Sleepiness-related accidents
• Increased irritability

All of this information can be found at: http://thewakeupsquad.com/

If you find yourself having any of these issues on a recurring basis, consider that it’s your shift that is causing them. Look at opportunities to change your shift, take a day off, or seek medical assistance to ensur ethat you don’t allow the SWD to take over your life!

Taking Care of Your Own – Recognizing Stress

Have you ever been this guy?

Maybe you aren’t sitting at a computer screen with your stress.  It’s hard not to have felt stress in the job we do. From the calls we run, the people we deal with, the administrators we would prefer NOT to deal with there’s stress.  Add to that the roles we fill outside of our jobs. As I was thinking about this post, I thought about the various different roles that add stress to my life. They include: Wife, mother, employee, boss, Instructor, Student, Author, Daughter, Sister, Friend, Homeowner, Bill payer.

And that’s just daily stress! Add to that the unexpected, the stressors that we can’t plan for (which as a planner can really throw me into a tailspin) and a normal person can really be thrown off. Heck, in just the past month I’ve dealt with a hurricane (no power for 5 days), start of EMT-I Class, my five year old starting kindergarten, the first anniversary of my mother’s death, and the list could go on.  As EMS providers, Firefighters, Emergency Managers, the expectation is that we can deal with stress, that we know how. But do we really?

I’m putting together a new program for my office that focuses on Health and Safety for responders and in doing so am trying to figure out what the focus needs to be. We are looking at physical and mental well-being, as well as overall incident scene safety. One of the biggest issues is figuring out how to teach maintaining mental well-being.  We are GREAT at recognizing individuals who are having PTSD symptoms.  We have plans in place in many areas on how to offer help to those individuals.  But, why do we wait until they have already been impacted to offer help? Why aren’t we preparing them for the field first, then offering help IF something happens (not WHEN)?  Why do the basic training courses only skim over the emotional impact of the calls we run?  We’ve got to start being more proactive instead of reactive, even though it’s what we are used to. One of the ways to do this is to offer resliency training.

Resilience is an individual’s ability to adapt well and recover quickly after enduring stressful, life-changing situations. It provides mechanisms to allow an individual to deal with the incident AS it occurs, not after. Most resliency training provides training on building four types of resiliency:

• Cognitive — preserving attention, memory, judgment and problem-solving skills.
• Physical — maintaining well-being through regular exercise, a healthy diet and restful sleep.
• Emotional — approaching life with a realistic, balanced and flexible disposition and addressing rather than avoiding problems.
• Spiritual — practicing and keeping in mind the concepts of forgiveness, acceptance, compassion, true meaning and purpose.

I once asked “Why can’t we add reslience training to basic EMT courses, Fire Courses, or even agency orientation?” The answers I got focused mostly on money and time. Really? Consider the time and money spent providing assistance to the provider who ends up suffering from PTSD and maybe it will seem like a much better investment.

Providing this type of training will build stronger providers, develop a better relationship with the provider, and hopefully allow individuals to stay in the system longer.  We are so great at getting the community ready for a big event or emergency, why aren’t we doing more of that for our own?

Not exactly something to be proud of…

So, a bit ago I posted about the impact of Hurricane Irene and some of the issues that arose during response to the impacts (http://stickysidedown.wordpress.com/2011/09/05/an-emergency-managers-dream-come-true/). I wanted to take tonight to look at the issue of work/rest cycles and talk about what can be done.

While dealing with issues associated with Hurricane Irene, I spoke with an individual in one of the affected jurisdictions. In the initial “hi, how are ya’s”, he mentioned that he had been at work since the previous Wednesday (it was now the following tuesday…six days later). Another individual from the same jurisdiction mentioned that he had worked 90 hours straight.  Honest to god, when I heard this I wanted to reach through the phone, grab each of them by their shoulders, and shake them while screaming “THIS IS NOT SOMETHING TO BE PROUD OF”. WHile I understand that there are times where we definitely don’t get the break we need to get back to 100%, the work cycles described by these individuals is not something I will EVER be okay with.

When we think of rehab, we often think of the house fire, long-term extrication, or even mass casualty incident (MCI) that initiates a need to provide food, drink, and rest to the firefighters for only a short period of time. We don’t think about the fact that we may need to give firefighters a restful night’s sleep before expecting them to return to duty.  Studies have been done regarding the impacts of the 24/7 cycle and the ability to cognitively and physically function. I don’t think you have to read the study to know that the less sleep you have, the more erractic and impaired your decisions become. In fact, an article I found at http://www.emsworld.com/print/EMS-World/Seeking-Shift-Work-Solutions/1$16575 cites a study that finds that a person who functions without sleep for 24 hours works at the impairment level of someone with a .10% BAC!

In the situation I presented at the start of this post, the defense could easily be, “Well, we let them sleep for X-hours”". I’d argue that it wasn’t beneficial at all. Why? Because the rest area offered to these individuals is not only in an environment that has no electricity/air conditioning/water (and therefore, comfort), but is the same place as the work environment. There is a need to separate the EMS provider from the station, even if just for 6 hours, to allow them to get a true physical and mental break from the activities of the job.

How do we solve this? We preplan. We recognize that we don’t have the appropriate staffing levels or personnel and we start early in the process to request assistance. In events such as the hurricane, we are lucky because we have forewarning. We KNOW that hte potential exists that our area will be hit.  Begin the mutual aid request process. Look to neighboring jurisdictions/agencies within your state and get the help there early. You also need to recognize your limits. At what point are you just going to have to say “We can’t do that”?  It’s a hard concept, because you have to be able to answer to the questions that will undoubtedly be asked. But I personally believe it’s easier to answer to the bosses, then to the opposing atorney when you are being questioned on the witness stand.

Does your agency have a workplan for the long term event? Are you guarateed (by contract, by SOP, by whatever) the ability to have a specific length break when working 24/7?  Any thoughts?

Also, check me out on twitter – @stickysidedwn.

Stay safe!