Training Application
The list of things that frustrates me sometimes is endless but for this week I would like to start a discussion on that application of training learned.
What I mean by this is that we now have some of the best training available in the fire service, through the most sophisticated techniques, and we have the Internet for research, and yet we still see some folks not doing the things they were trained to do when they get out into the field.
Now the worst of all of that is that they sometimes get away with the shortcut without any corrective behavior (yes that's discipline) being suggested or given, and then they will repeat that behavior until the one they were taught and actually learned becomes nothing but a memory for a promotional examination.
Folks will eat a building construction book for a promotional exam and then immediately park apparatus in a collapse zone at a well involved commercial building. They know the material and maybe even got the right answer, but it will not show up in the field.
Many years ago (way too many) I learned that the term learning was an observable behavioral change. That is to say that when we actually learned something we might actually perform and behave differently.
I see lots of friends colleagues and acquaintances (some with advanced education and degrees in the fire service) sometimes performing at lower levels that belie their training and education.
So....is there another factor that must come into play here? I believe that it is one of my pet peeves. I think that it is a loss of personal accountability and personal discipline. Ask folks you work with or volunteer with if that is the case, and they will tell you the fire service is a paramilitary organization. I hope the hell they are not referring to the us military? I hope it is some foreign remote island's air force or something!
I say this tongue in check but just thinks of the following scenarios and feel free to add your own, or put names to them mentally.....
The guy in your station or shift who can't wear a clean uniform, the guy who won't even wear a uniform and wears a tee shirt all day that like him or her faded three years ago, the guy who always has another task during truck equipment checks, the guy or gal who never rolls hose, the person whose absence can always be predicted because the are slackers and use sick time when not sick, the member whose air pack does not work ever, the member who never does house duties, the member who is always complaining about the officer corps at all levels...etc.
And this is a paramilitary organization?
I submit to you that until we can get folks responsible for themselves, they may not perform correctly based upon the training they have been given.
It is not just training and education it is attitude and personal responsibility.
Will you do the right thing this week?