Incident Management Courses

The National Incident Management (NIMS) is an emergency response system of protocol that was created to be used during the event of a national crisis. It allows multiple agencies, both private and governmental, in various jurisdictions to work together using a common hierarchy of command. The NIMS system is based on the Incident Command System (ICS) that was established in the 1970s after research suggested that the biggest problem during the event of a natural disaster or a terrorist attack was not a lack of resources or ineffective tactics, but rather a lack of coordination and useful communication.

After the NIMS structure was passed in 2004, emergency response training courses were beginning to be offered on the internet so that emergency workers can be certified under NIMS standards. The core curriculum consists of several training courses that are taken over the course of five years. The NIC, the organization that manages the courses, has a goal of spreading NIMS education and training for all emergency management and response efforts by individuals on a executive, managerial, or first-hand level. The courses, IS200: Single Resources and Initial Action Incidents and IS800: National Response Framework Introduction are detailed in this section.

IS200 Single Resources and Initial Action Incidents:
IS200 is a course that has been written and revised by the EMI to reflect changes due to lessons learned since its initial offering in 1996. It added concepts essential in the National Response Framework. The course meets the standards created from the NIMS federal standard, and it uses standards created by the National Wildfire Coordinating Group, the United States Fire Administration, the United States Department of Agriculture and the Emergency Management Institute.

The main goal of IS200 is to give personnel the tools needed to operate efficiently as they are responding to a national crisis being run by the ICS. Training in IS200 is for personnel most likely to assume a supervising role within the Incident Command System. The prerequisite for IS200 is IS100a and the course takes approximately three hours to complete.

IS800 National Response Framework Introduction:
The Independent Study Program implemented IS800 in 2008. The course is designed to introduce emergency personnel to the key concepts of the National Response Framework. The objectives of the course includes:

* Why the National Response Framework was established;
* The response doctrine outlined by the National Response Framework;
* The National Response Framework roles and responsibilities of all entities within an emergency situation;
* What actions aid in a national response to a crisis;
* How multiagency coordination is established;
* How planning and national preparedness go hand-in-hand.
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Emergency response personnel intended for IS800 includes government executives, private sector nongovernmental organizations, and emergency management workers. People who take this course should be senior-level managers and leaders, such as agency heads, tribal leaders, and city or county officials. Any position with a great amount of responsibility in the event of a crisis should take IS800

Incident Command System Policies

The Incident Command System consists of personnel, policies, procedures, facilities, and equipment that work together in an organized structure designed to greatly improve emergency response effectiveness, response time, and efficiency for all disasters, no matter how big or complex. The ICS is based off a common command structure that allows all officials in organizations, no matter private or public, in any jurisdiction to effectively communicate with each other in emergency situations. The goal of ICS is designed to reduce any problems with communication and emergency techniques in such incidents in which quick response and proper operations are critical.

The ICS focuses on a system of management and procedures on a temporary basis for an incident of any size or severity. The ICS has a general emphasis on preparedness, with all aspects of its operations practiced and personnel trained well before an incident occurs. When an incident does occur, the ICS formulates a management hierarchy that is used to control funds, employees, facilities, equipment, resources, and communications. Personnel are selected because of their training and their ability to meet the guidelines set forth by the ICS. The ICS establishes its resources and structure for emergency situations from the moment that an incident is responded to until they are no longer needed and the incident needs no further attention.

The Incident Command System is designed to not only be structural guidelines, but also to be flexible enough to adapt to unexpected circumstances. For example, in an emergency situation that would cover many jurisdictions, the ICS system is designed to meet the needs of each one of those jurisdictions and to establish firm communication with all of them. In the event of an incident, the ICS system will allow for many different agencies and organizations to quickly formulate a management structure, using common terminology for easy communication vital in a time of crisis. In addition, the ICS provides logistical support to an operational staff, is designed to be cost effective by avoiding doubled work, and delivers a unified system of organization.

History of the Incident Command System:
The ICS was formed during the 1970s during massive wildfires that took place in California that ravaged several urban areas in the state. There was a massive amount of property damage and many lives were lost in the fires. Studies that were conducted following the disaster showed that the reason why there was so much damage that ran into the millions and lives lost was because of management and communication deficiencies rather than a lack of resources or ineffective tactics. Policies of the ICS were eventually adopted into the the Homeland Security Directive number 5 with the formulation of the National Incident Management System.

The ICS improved on the following problems with emergency management and response for incidents:

* Unclear chain of command and a lack of accountability;
* Communication was poor due to equipment incompatibilities and different uses of terminology;
* No clear planning process to go by;
* There were no clear guidelines on how to integrate several organizations into a single chain of command;
* No coordination between individuals with specialized skills and those who were first responders in an emergency;
* Knowledge about terminology was either lacking or unclear during emergencies.

Incident Command System

The Incident Command System (ICS) is a protocol of how personnel, policies, procedures, facilities, resources and equipment all work together in an organized structure to respond to an emergency or prevent a crisis from happening. Incident command systems are generally designed so that cooperation between several different agencies and organizations spanning various jurisdictions is structured under a firm guideline. Incident command systems put a general focus on communication and structure so that a response to a national crisis is both efficient and effective.

The Incident Command System in the United States was originally established in California in the 1970s when a wildfire created millions of dollars worth of damaged and cost the lives of many people. After a study of how emergency officials handled the situation, it was found that the reason why the fires were not contained sooner was not because of a lack of resources or poor tactics, but rather it was a lack of proper communication and structural organization. Many agencies worked together to contain the fire, but they did not communicate well and use a universal terminology. In addition, the hierarchy of command was unclear, and as a result, many people did not use a concise chain of command. The Incident Command System eliminated structural and communication problems that is associated with agency cooperation during a national crisis.

The Incident Command System Concepts:

The Incident Command System established many key concepts that would be the foundation for proper emergency response in the event of a crisis. Later, these ideas would be integrated into the Federally-funded National Incident Management System in 2003.

Unity of Command:
In an emergency response situation, every person working a task reports to only one supervisor. This rule eliminates the possibility of individuals to receive conflicting information and orders from a variety of supervisors. This essentially eliminates a great deal of potential confusion that can happen in a chain of command. It also increases accountability, prevents freelancing, facilitates the flow of information, better coordinates operations, and ensures safety of all workers in the emergency situation.

Universal Terminology:
Before the establishment of incident command systems, agencies developed and used their own terminology for their operations separately. Consequently, a term used in one agency may mean something completely different in another. During a emergency, if agencies are required to work together, there may be a great deal of confusion between the workers if a common terminology is not used between the two. The Incident Command System promotes and requires the use of a universal terminology and has developed a bank of terms that gives the use a consistent meaning to words. Universal terminology is especially important for commanding positions.

Management by Objective:
This basically means that in the incident command system, a task is not assigned until a clear objective is first established that the task will help lead to. Objectives are encouraged to be as specific as possible and attainable. When an objective is outlined, there should also be a time frame and schedule to go along with it to determine when it may be achieved.

Flexible and Modular Organization:
Depending on the incident, only organizations and individuals who are needed at a current point in time are brought in and dismissed immediately after their duties are carried out. This helps to minimize costs and also provides efficiency to the task at hand.

Span-of-Control:
The Incident Command System states that any given individual’s span of control should only be between three and seven people. A manager should not be spread too thin among several subordinates. If more than seven individuals are managed by one person, their workload may become to great.

Incident Command Training

Based on the Incident Command System established after the wildfire in California during the 1970s, the National Incident Management System (NIMS) was founded by the Department of Homeland Security in 2004. The goal of NIMS was to provide a universal protocol for agencies to coordinate together on a Federal, State, local, or tribal level in the event of a national emergency. These national emergencies can include earthquakes, floods, hurricanes, or terrorist attacks. In order to ensure that protocol is met by emergency workers during one of these disasters, a five year incident command training program was established. This incident command training program ensured that all emergency workers on the executive, managerial, and first-hand levels coordinated their efforts effectively to respond to and prevent crisis situations.

Basic Staff Trained in Incident Command Training:
In the event of a major crisis, a hierarchy of staff members is created, spanning several organizations, whether private or governmental. If necessary, the total staff may also encompass several jurisdictions, no matter if its Federal, State, Local, or tribal. There are many different types of disasters or national emergencies that can occur, so while the basic structure of a crisis staff remains the same, it may be organized to cater to the situation at hand.

Incident Commander:
An incident commander is in charge of all functions of an emergency response unit during a crisis. The job of incident commander involves creating an objective, managing all operations leading up to that objective, managing of resources and is responsible for all staff members involved in the emergency staff. Depending on the situation, the role of incident commander is usually taken by someone who is a senior officer. In all emergency situations, the incident commander position is always chosen, even if subordinates of that position are not always chosen. Usually, the incident commander may be in charge of filling those positions under him or her.

If a crisis is large enough, one incident commander may not be enough, and a unified command is assigned, especially when multiple agencies are involved in the emergency response. The unified command acts as a single entity, with each member assigned different tasks. Typically, one person acts as a command representative for the agencies involved and another acts as the spokesman for that representative.

If several emergency situations arise in multiple areas, an area command may be established so that incident commanders can act in multiple locations. An area command involves one person being assigned as area commander, providing support to the other command teams.

Command Staff:
The command staff includes a safety officer, public information officer, and liaison. The safety officer observes safety conditions and develops ways to contain unsafe situations for the well-being of all personnel. The public information officer is in charge of the flow of information to the public. The liaison is a contact that links several agencies together in a crisis.

National Incident Management System

The National Incident Management System (NIMS) set forth a number of guidelines for incidents being responded to and managed during a crisis, deriving from the Homeland Security directive number 5. The NIMS structure is based highly on the Incident Command System (ICS) that was established in the 1970s as a result of a wildfire in California. After the situation ended and was evaluated, it was found that the amount of damage and deaths caused by the wildfire could have been significantly reduced if there was a uniform communication and command structure in place. Thus, the ICS was established to prevent emergencies from getting out of hand because of communication and structural issues, something that should never happen.

Today, training for the Incident Command System (ICS) is handled through a system of courses spanning across five years. The National Integration Center (NIC) is an organization that maintains the training program for emergency protocol during a crisis. The NIC has a goal of spreading NIMS education and training for all emergency management and response efforts by individuals on a executive, managerial, or first-hand level. The NIC has also established a set of minimum requirements that each emergency personnel are required to have before responding or preventing emergency situations.

The training program is comprised of a core curriculum of courses that range from beginner to advanced. These courses train individuals to meet standards for NIMS and ICS protocols. Two vital courses in the training program are ICS 100 and ICS 800.

ICS 100:
ICS is an essential course that helps individuals learn the basics of the NIMS/ICS protocol. ICS 100 clearly identifies the relationship between NIMS and ICS while describing the history and features they include. The following positions are recommended to take the course:

First-line Supervisor (Sergeant/Lieutenant), Mid-level management (Captain/Shift Commander) and command (Battalion Chief/Division Chief/District Commander/PIO) and general staff (Operations/Planning/Logistics/Finance-Admin).

ICS 100 is a course that can be taken entirely online if an individual decides to, but in some cases, all the paperwork and materials can be downloaded from the internet so that he or she can attend a classroom session or group meeting. Agencies qualified to provide the ICS 100 are on the Federal, State, tribal, and local level. Private organizations can also administer the ICS 100 if they are certified to do so.

ICS 800:
ICS 800 is a course for emergency response and prevention workers can take which introduces participants to the National Response Framework, including principles and concepts that it contains. At the end of ICS 800, the participant will be well versed in the following information:

* Why the National Response Framework was established;
* The response doctrine outlined by the National Response Framework;
* The National Response Framework roles and responsibilities of all entities within an emergency situation;
* What actions aid in a national response to a crisis;
* How multiagency coordination is established;
* How planning and national preparedness go hand-in-hand.

ICS 800 is intended for executives, private and nongovernmental organization leaders, and emergency management personnel. ICS 800 is generally administered in a classroom setting, and is taught in a total span of eight hours.