Human Tools

The components of crew resource management

Emergency operations in the fire service, like any other complex and challenging high-risk task, involve a systematic process carried out by proficiently trained teams that have varying roles and decision-making responsibilities. Technical training improves firefighters’ proficiency at specific tasks, but it doesn’t prevent errors caused by a lack of situational awareness or poor communication and decision making in a dynamic and dangerous environment.

After several accidents involving human error, the aviation community recognized it was falling short when it came to proper training. As a result, it developed safety training focused on effective team management, known as crew resource management (CRM). Improvement in overall aviation safety is partly the result of this training.

Over the years, lessons learned from the aviation industry’s approach to team training have been used successfully by other high-risk professions, such as the fire service. In this column, I’ll review what CRM is and what it’s not, as well as the principles, procedures and training needed to create a CRM culture.

What It Is & What It’s Not
CRM serves as an instrument for preventing error and managing risks, effectively using all resources, including people, technology, systems and information. Simply put, CRM is a set of “human tools” used to make a fire department ready to operate safely and effectively in a rapidly changing and challenging environment. CRM fosters a philosophy, or a culture, of sound principles that enhance productive processes that lead to safe and effective operations. The goal of CRM is to achieve “optimal performance” from a team (everyone) when executing multiple, complex tasks.

CRM is not just a poster on the wall or a creative quote spoken during a lecture. It’s not just a policy we must follow at an emergency scene. And it’s not limited to just firefighters or fire crews; it includes all personnel in a fire department, such as apparatus technicians, dispatchers and administrative staff. CRM encompasses everyone and everything. It’s not just words or talk; it’s putting behaviors, principles and practices into real action.

CRM & Behavior
As the level of job intensity increases, firefighters begin to display different behaviors, which emphasize positive or negative characteristics. (Note: For this article, “firefighters” includes all fire department personnel.) Examples of positive behaviors include maintaining situational awareness, expecting and anticipating the unexpected, exhibiting positive and productive attitudes, communicating well and using sound judgment based on personal knowledge and experience. Negative behaviors may include a lack of situational awareness, complacency, a negative attitude, poor communication skills or a lack of knowledge.

What does all this have to do with CRM? If the fire service can identify positive and productive behaviors in each firefighter, it will be better equipped to customize training that will create a culture focused on safe and effective operations.

What Makes Up a CRM Culture?
There’s no universal CRM program that creates a safe and effective culture. But many “high-risk” professions, including aviation, healthcare and the military, emphasize CRM principles, or practices, such as effective situational awareness, crew coordination and decision making. To make CRM a part of their culture, fire departments are encouraged to implement these practices into their training and emergency scene operations, as well as their non-emergency operations (administrative, support and other routine functions).

When implementing CRM principles, keep the following points in mind:

• Take a comprehensive approach to implementation. Include CRM procedures; ongoing training for training instructors and crews; and an ongoing performance evaluation process and research.
• Tailor each practice to a fire department’s unique operational demands (like firefighters, all fire departments have their differences and similarities).
• Incorporate CRM elements (principles and procedures) into standard operating procedures for normal (such as routine preventative maintenance on apparatus or equipment) as well as abnormal and emergency scene situations (flashover, building collapse, equipment malfunction, etc.).
• Don’t think of CRM as a one-time training program or a single piece of technology. A CRM culture is ongoing, dynamic and constantly growing and changing.

The 5 Steps
In their book, Crew Resource Management for the Fire Service, authors Randy Okray and Thomas Lubnau explain that the following five steps are needed to create a culture of safety.

1. The organization builds trust among the members by supporting open and honest communication, where follower and leaders, both, listen and provide positive and productive input.
2. The organization adopts a non-punitive policy toward error. Error is a part of the human element; people do, and always will, make mistakes. Recognizing and accepting that, and operating in a way to manage those mistakes, will create a productive and safe operation.
3. The organization demonstrates a willingness to reduce error in the system. It starts at the top. Department leaders must accept and live by a CRM culture.
4. The organization provides training in error avoidance, detection and management strategies. Firefighters must have the right tools and authority to recognize and confront problems.
5. The organization provides training in evaluation and reinforcement of error avoidance, detection and management. Learning to debrief productively after a call will identify the department’s strengths and weaknesses, generating valuable lessons learned that could be institutionalized into emergency and operational procedures.

Where to Begin
The 2007 Firefighter Near-Miss Report, along with the 2006 Report, identified a lack of situational awareness as the highest contributing factor to near misses. This emphasized the point that, whether firefighting crews are working a structure fire or a vehicle accident on a busy highway, knowing what’s going on around them is the most important aspect of any operation.

Situational awareness involves more than just seeing what’s going on; it requires firefighters to use all their senses (touch, smell, taste, hearing, sight and a sixth sense—common sense) when operating on scene. It means knowing where you are, how all the elements on the fireground will affect you and how you’ll respond to improve the situation. It’s seeing and understanding “the big picture,” and it’s one of the foundations of operating safely and effectively.

Some major causes for losing situational awareness include getting lost inside a structure (disorientation); structural collapse; aggressive changes in fire behavior (backdraft, flashover); and task overload (too many things to do with too few resources and little time to do them).

The next Firefighting 360 column will discuss the first component of CRM—situational awareness—in further detail and how firefighters can attain it, practice it and maintain it, as individuals and as teams, to achieve optimal performance.

Until next time, get prepared, be ready and stay safe!

References
National Firefighter Near-Miss Reporting System. Annual Reports 2006 and 2007: Contributing Factors and Crew Resource Management.
Okray, R. & Lubnau II, T. Crew Resource Management for the Fire Service. Tulsa, OK: PennWell Corporation, 2004.

Helmreich, R.L., Merritt, A.C. & Wilhelm, J.A. (1999). The evolution of crew resource management training in commercial aviation. International Journal of Aviation Psychology, 9 (1), 19–32.

Billy Schmidt is a district chief assigned to the 3rd battalion with Palm Beach (Fla.) County Fire Rescue. An adjunct instructor for the department’s Training and Safety Division, he has a bachelor’s degree in Human Resource Management and an associate’s degree in Fire Science.