Fundamentals and Concepts of NIMS

Question 1

What does the National Incident Management System (NIMS) define?

Answer 1

The comprehensive approach guiding the whole community - all levels of government, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), and the private sector - to work together seamlessly to prevent, protect against, mitigate, respond to, and recover from the effects of incidents.

Question 2

What is NIMS?

Answer 2

• A comprehensive, nationwide, systematic approach to incident management, including command and coordination of incidents, resource management, and information management.
• A set of concepts and principles for all threats, hazards, and events across all mission areas (Prevention, Protection, Mitigation, Response, recovery).
• Scalable, flexible, and adaptable; used for all incidents, from day-to-day to large scale.
• Standard resource management procedures that enable coordination among different jurisdictions or organizations.
• Essential principles for communications and information management.

Question 3

What is not NIMS?

Answer 3

• Only the Incident Management System
• Only applicable to certain emergency/incident response personnel
• A static system
• A response plan
• Used only during large-scale incidents
• A resource ordering system
• A communications plan

Question 4

What is incident management?

Answer 4

Application of resources by organizations to plan for, respond to, and recover from an incident.

Question 5

What are priorities for incident management?

Answer 5

• Saving lives.
• Stabilizing the incident.
• Protecting property and the environment.

Question 6

What are the three (3) NIMS guiding principles?

Answer 6

1. Flexibility
2. Standardization
3. Unity of effort

Question 7

What does NIMS guiding principle of Flexibility allow?

Answer 7

Scalable from routine local incidents through those requiring interstate mutual aid, up to those requiring Federal assistance.

Question 8

What does the NIMS guiding principle of standardization support?

Answer 8

Interoperability among multiple organizations in incident response.

Question 9

What do NIMS “Standard Organizational Structures” improve?

Answer 9

Integration and connectivity among organizations.

Question 10

What do NIMS “Standard Practices” allow?

Answer 10

Incident personnel and organizations to work together effectively.

Question 11

What does NIMS “Common Terminology” enable?

Answer 11

Effective communications.

Question 12

What does the NIMS guiding principle of Unity of Effort mean?

Answer 12

Coordinating activities among various organizational representative to achieve common objectives.

Question 13

Unity of effort enables what?

Answer 13

Organizations with jurisdictional authority or functional responsibilities to support each other while allowing each participating agency to maintain its own authority and accountability.

Question 14

What are the major components of the NIMS framework?

Answer 14

• Resource Management
• Command and Coordination
• Communications and Information Management

Question 15

What does Resource Management describe?

Answer 15

Standard mechanisms to systematically manage resources including personnel, equipment, supplies, teams, and facilities both before and during incidents in order to allow organizations to more effectively share resources when needed.

Question 16

What does Command and Coordination describe?

Answer 16

Leadership roles, processes, and recommended organizations structures for incident management at the operational and incident support level and explains how these structures interact to manage incidents effectively and efficiently.

Question 17

What does Communications and Information Management describe?

Answer 17

Systems and methods that help to ensure that incident personnel and other decision makers have the means and the information they need to make and communicate decisions.