What are we doing to mentor our new firefighters?

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Permalink Reply by Sunshine Lemme on March 26, 2008 at 3:03pm

When I had one year in my volunteer department, I witnessed a wonderful example of mentoring, one that I've thought we could institutionalize. A former lieutenant and one of the best firefighters got one of his friends and coworkers to join. He took the new guy everywhere, they became inseparable, and the mentor taught his protege everything he knew. The result is two excellent firefighters.

The process was obviously informal, and it lasted until the newer guy moved out of the district, six years at least. This is too long for any formal mentoring program, but as they were friends, it worked well. I would like to create a formal program for mentoring our new guys. I know that I struggled sometimes learning the ropes, not having a specific person to go to for answers.

So I'd like to see the answers to Scott's questions, too. How is the mentor motivated, are there formal things they have to do together (rig checks, training, fire teams, etc.) or do you let the two decide how to do that. How did you get the program started?

Permalink Reply by Scott Thompson on March 27, 2008 at 10:24pm

BACKGROUND
To explain the impact of this, a brief background is necessary. As a rookie firefighter I was assigned to a dual company house. Because it was the Haz Mat station, it was the first time a rookie had been assigned to this particular crew…..needless to say the expectations were high. On my first shift the Captain welcomed me, and in great detail, went over his expectations of me. He was very professional and treated me with more respect than I probably deserved as the newest member of his crew.

On the second shift, after completing the morning check and breakfast, the Captain called the entire house out onto the floor. The Captain asked me to stand up in front of all, and he asked me a question about the rig. That question was followed by another question from another member of the crew and so on and so on. Each member had the opportunity to ask me any questions they wanted about anything that had to do with my responsibilities as a firefighter. If I did not know or got the answer wrong, we moved on to the next, the Captain did not allow negative comments or smart a** remarks. When the drill was done, we went about our day. As we had down time, various other firefighters would pull me aside and mentor me on the areas that I had trouble with that morning. They would work with me until I understood, often sharing stores about their experiences. This went on for about six weeks, or about the time I was able to answer all of the questions being asked of me, I don’t think we ever missed a morning. On the last shift of this drill, the Captain called all to the floor as usual. This time he had the entire crew stand in front of me and I was allowed to ask anyone, anything about their responsibilities. I can still remember that day very well and the lessons I had learned over the duration of this informal mentoring process.

I have conducted this drill many times since with very positive results. The goal is to keep it positive and remember the purpose…..to help the new guy learn his role on the team, the rig and the equipment, and for the crew to learn about the confidence and knowledge of the new guy.