The National Incident Management System is a set of guidelines outlined by the Department of Homeland Security for use in the event of an emergency. It provides a universal incident protocol for all organizations, whether public or private so that they can cooperate with each other across various jurisdictions effectively and efficiently. To promote the importance of the NIMS structure for emergency management and response, the five year NIMS training program has been established to train all emergency personnel to manage, respond to, and prevent emergency situations.

What is the National Integration Center (NIC)?

The NIC is tasked with implementing NIMS training programs for emergency personnel learning to perform under the NIMS guidelines. The NIC ensures that the training program properly qualifies individuals in emergency management and response to coordinate their efforts in handling an emergency situation, no matter how big or complex the situation is. The NIC does this by implementing a five year NIMS training program to reach three underlying goals:

* The spread of NIMS education and training for all emergency management and response;
* Help personnel adapt to the capabilities defined by NIMS training;
* Develop a minimum set of specifications that personnel are required to obtain before being used for service in emergency situations.

The training program involves a core curriculum of courses to be completed to properly train personnel under NIMS guidelines. Two important courses in the NIMS training program outlined in this article are NIMS 100 and NIMS 700, two vital courses in the training program curriculum.

NIMS 100:
When an emergency response or management official participates in the NIMS Training Plan, he or she is required to take NIMS 100, an essential course for learning the basics of the NIMS structure if he or she has the following responsibilities:

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).

The NIMS 100 course is a course that is designed to be taken online. However, if necessary, the course materials can be downloaded from the internet and used in a group or classroom setting. Answer sheets can then be obtained from the EMI Independent Study Office or ordered online.

The NIMS 100 course and training may be given by Federal, State, tribal, and local agencies. This can include private vendors as well, however for the course to be valid it must include the following topics of disscussion:

* What is the purpose of ICS? Identification of the requirements of ICS, three purposes of ICS and common tasks involved in an incident;
* What are the basic features of ICS and descriptions of each;
* Incident Commander and Command Staff Functions;
* General Staff Functions;
* Facilities: Basic ICS facilities;
* Common Responsibilities.

NIMS 700:
Another important NIMS course is NIMS 700, also called Awareness Training. The personnel who are required to take NIMS 700 are people who have a direct role in emergency preparedness, incident management or response. This course was designed to be a awareness level course taken on the internet that disscusses NIMS components, concepts, and principles. The course may be also taken in a group setting if all the materials are downloaded from the internet.

Who must take NIMS 700?

* Executive Level: Political and government leaders; organizational administrators;
* Managerial Level: Division/Group Supervisors, Unit Leaders, technical specilists;
* Responder Level: Emergency response workers and disaster workers (including firefighters, medical personnel, police officers, etc.)