24 Hr Shift Training/Safety Officers

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Permalink Reply by Wesley Stephens on October 22, 2008 at 8:44pm

Sorry it took so long to reply I have been out of pocket for a few days. I currently am one of those 24 hr shift training/safety officers. Our situation is similar to yours with 3 of us one for each crew but our battalion chiefs are on the same schedule. I think it is great. I have a hard time getting multi-company training going during the day due to inspections, daily duties, and whatever other projects come up, so I do it in the evening time. In the summer months this is cooler anyway.

I also respond to all multi-company responses to be a safety officer. This dedicated safety officer position is a great thing in my opinion. The IC has too many things going to perform the safety officer's job effectively even on small incidents. I also recon infromation for the IC as I make my rounds.

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Permalink Reply by Bob Smith on October 23, 2008 at 10:20am

Thanks for the reply Wesley, what department do you work for? Other than finding time to do drills, what issues do you have? we found that continuity between instructors is an issue. We train tues, wed and thurs. Mondays and fridays and saturdays they have time to do prefire and anything other projects. We do night drills every once in a while.

bob

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Permalink Reply by Wesley Stephens on October 23, 2008 at 4:10pm

I work at North Little Rock FD, Arkansas. One advantage that I feel we have is the continuation of training. I deal with the same people everyshift and they deal with me. I know who can do what, who needs what, and who will be helpful or problematic. Our younger guys have a four year program that they must go through when they're done with rookie school, so this allows me to ensure that they are getting what they need.

One draw back that I feel we have is that when I need help or if I just need to confer with another training officer from another crew it creates overtime pay, which isn't always recieved well. So most of the time I just get help from other crew members which usually instills a little pride and ownership motivation.

I like the scheduled days for training though, currently we just train when we can. Something I was told once in a class was that if you want to prevent people from complaining about trainingthen you have to make it a habit. If it's part of the routine then it will just be expected instead of something that has come up for them to do on top of everything else they have to do. I feel that there is alot of truth in this and your method sounds like routine training to me.

Thanks for the insight

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Permalink Reply by Bob Smith on October 23, 2008 at 7:44pm

Sounds like the same deal here...When I said continuity being an issue , i was referring to across the shifts. I have strengths , my other 2 partners have thier strengths. We have been doing the shift/ training format for about 2 years, so historically our guys are used to 1 intstructor teaching the same thing in the same way. The current way is best, by far. I know my guys and they know me...My boss is a day guy, so he helps us with instructing. He schedules and sets the format. I do most of the program writting and development. Who do you report to? My boss is ( B.C of training) but I also report to the B.C. (shift commander). Also, we are developing a truck company program and an engine tool/seating assignment. does your department run true truck companies and does your engine guys have tool/seating assignments?

bob

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