Part 2 (Barriers to Commander Situational Awareness) Chapter 6: Staffing

Question 1

From the multiple card sorting exercise, ______ of the cards selected were staffing related issues

Answer 1

43%

Question 2

The unique finding in the fire service that was not found in other high stress/consequence environments was the

Answer 2

occurrence of short staff in public safety agencies and subsequent impact of understaffing had on 1st responder SA

Question 3

The expert commanders in Gasaway’s research listed situational awareness issues related to _____ and their most significant barrier

Answer 3

Staffing

Question 4

Common staffing related barriers include

Answer 4

• Understaffing
• Unpredictable staffing
• response time delays (as it relates to staffing)
• lack of experience of the responders they supervised

Question 5

Tracking the number of personnel responding to an incident is not enough. Commanders must also assess the quality of crews to ensure the tasks assigned can be completed in a timely fashion. This is a component of

Answer 5

Level 3 situational awareness

Question 6

Decision makers revealed that part of their size-up considers staffing levels (both quality and quantity). This includes ________ and ________

Answer 6

how long it will take to get the right staffing on scene

and

how to manage the incident until the right quality and quantity of staffing arrive

Question 7

When challenged by understaffing, a decision maker can’t develop _______ about staffing when critical cues and clues are missing

Answer 7

level 1 SA

Question 8

______ by the decision maker about a crew’s ability may cause the decision maker to over-assign tasks to personnel, thus giving crew multiple assignments and expecting them to be completed in unrealistic time frames

Answer 8

overconfidence

Question 9

This staffing challenge is where a commander arrives on scene, completes a size-up, figures out what is going on and then makes a plan prior to the arrival of the proper staffing. Then the commander assigns people to execute the stale plan instead of reassessing the plan.

Answer 9

premature assignments

Question 10

A decision making best practice might be to arrive and formulate situational awareness that includes a prediction of how far the fire is going to progress and how much the incident may deteriorate in the time it’s realistically going to take to assemble the right amount of ____.

Answer 10

staffing

Question 11

Decision makers must pay attention to how much time is elapsing (seconds or minutes) as the incident _______

Answer 11

intensifies

Question 12

Decision makers who assess crew ___ and _____ prior to making a tactical assignment can improve SA

Answer 12

quality and quantity

Question 13

The ____ and _____ levels of FF’s are clues and cues that help a commander form SA about what they can accomplish and how long it will take them to accomplish it. It is unrealistic to hold the same expectations for an inexperienced crew as are held for an experienced crew

Answer 13

age, experience levels

Question 14

On occasion, decision makers may find themselves going _______ (______) when it is determined that the crew lacks training/experience. It is a situational judgement call that may improve crew safety. It could also increase risk to personnel because there is nobody outside to look at the big picture and the _____ commander may find himself focused on the safety/inexperience of the crew and miss critical information

Answer 14

operation (hands on)

Question 15

When a commander does go operational for safety reasons, a dedicated hands off commander should established ASAP

Answer 15

true