Home > Firefighter / Rescue / Emergency Medical Technology Academic/Professional Guidelines .:
If you have any questions, comments, or suggestions related to firefighters or rescue and emergency personnel with hearing loss, please contact: Neil McDevitt at firerescue@amphl.org.
Table of Contents
The Life of Rescue Personnel
- Hours
- Training
- Interpreters
- Physical Involvement
- Emotional Involvement
- Joining a Volunteer Fire Department/EMS Agency
- Training Programs/Academies
- Adaptations “On the Job”
______________________________________________________________________
The Life of Rescue Personnel
So you’ve decided to look into becoming a firefighter. Or maybe you’re interested in becoming an Emergency Medical Technician (EMT) and riding on an ambulance and helping people in medical need? Maybe doing Search And Rescue (SAR) in a variety of environments appeals to you?
Having a hearing loss doesn’t automatically exclude you from doing any of these things! But the lifestyle and culture of rescue personnel is tough and demanding on both hearing and deaf people alike. In addition, for people with hearing losses, you will need to adapt to the emergency services in extraordinary ways.
Since most communities in the United States are served by volunteer Firefighters, EMTs and SAR teams, we focus mainly on the volunteers in this document.
Hours
Depending on your state’s requirements and your agency’s requirements, you may need to take at least 100 hours of training before you can be considered a firefighter/EMT/SAR specialist. This is often required just to become a full-fledged member of the agency you want to join.
Most agencies have weekly drill sessions to refresh skills learned during the initial training or introduce new skills to their members. These are often at least 3 hours per week. Some agencies also have a weekly work session where chores are done around the facilities.
Some stations have duty shifts where you will be expected to work for a certain time period per week. These may be overnight shifts where you are expected to sleep at the station. Most agencies are purely on-call, relying on pagers to call their members out to respond to calls. Calls can range in time from a simple 10 minute call to extended periods of time stretching over 10 hours.
Depending on your area, you may only respond to 1 call per week or fewer. Busier areas may respond to as many as 100 calls per week.
Training
As noted; many agencies require at least 100 hours of training before you can be considered a full-fledged member of the Rescue team.
Firefighters typically take a course called Essentials of Firefighting I (also called FF1). This is a 100+ hour course that teaches fire behavior, proper techniques, safety, and suppression methods. Many departments require that all personnel also take the FFII course which covers more specialized techniques such as vehicle rescue, foam firefighting, and incident command techniques.
EMS personnel typically need to take a class that teaches the fundamentals of Basic Life support (BLS). Advanced Life Support (ALS) personnel are often referred to as “Paramedics” and they often have to take additional training.
Search And Rescue Personnel will have different levels of training depending on the area that they will specialize in. Urban SAR will often require several classes while others may only require a short class.
Interpreters: Typically speaking, any classes offered by an accredited agency such as a state Fire Academy or a county-level Community College should provide interpreters without question.
However, most training sessions are offered as “in-house” meaning an officer in your agency will provide the instruction. While under the letter of the law, the agency is required to provide interpreters, for most volunteer companies, this would pose an undue financial hardship. The best approaches to ensuring your needs are satisfied is to discuss the situation with officers and administrative members of your agency. Physic
Physical Involvement
People typically need to be in good shape to start out in the Rescue fields. The training alone is quite intensive.
Note that a majority of Line of Duty Deaths (LODD) do not result from injuries suffered fighting a fire or treating a patient. Rather, they’re from heart attacks, heat-related illnesses, or other medical-related causes.
Most physical exertion during fires typically are extremely intensive during the first 30 to 45 minutes of the incident and they require the individual to wear heavy turnout gear and use a Self-Contained Breathing Apparatus (SCBA) which provides clean air in a hazardous environment.
Typically, this equipment does NOT interfere with hearing aids as most SCBA masks only cover the face. There have been situations where a hood will cause feedback but this is usually resolved by fiddling with the hearing aid placement.
Deaf or Hard-of-Hearing rescue personnel must also be acutely aware of their surroundings at all times. If circumstances become unsafe for themselves or any other rescue personnel, everyone must speak up at that time.
Emotional Involvement
Within the Rescue profession, there are many stories of people being saved from dangerous situations, even being rescuitated after being “dead” for a short period of time. These successes are sure to make any rescuer feel good about their involvement.
However, there are also stories of failure, where an individual was too badly burned or injured and could not be saved. Often times, there was nothing that the rescuer could have done differently to save the victim. In rare situations, a mistake by the rescuer could worsen a victim’s injuries and even cause death.
The most stressful part for almost all deaf rescue professionals is working with their colleagues in the field. The training tells us what we need to do to get a job done but the fact that we have to work with others makes it more stressful. Teaching colleagues hand signals or clear communication techniques is VITAL to anyone’s continued success. For example, a deaf EMT may grasp their upper arm to ask for a blood pressure cuff. More on non-verbal communication in the Adaptations section.
Joining a Volunteer Fire Department/EMS Agency
To succeed and thrive as a deaf member of the rescue profession, you need to find an agency that provides nothing less than 100% support for all of its members. Unfortunately, there are agencies in the world that actively refuse to consider membership roles for individuals with disabilities in their agencies.
When approaching an volunteer agency to inquire about membership, it may be better to introduce yourself as a member of the community. Initiate a conversation about the department itself and what they do. Ask questions about the equipment they use.
At some point, ask about membership in the organization. Ask people in the organization if there are any barriers that would bar you from joining.
Additionally, you will need to discuss the prospects of joining with the senior leaders of the agency. For example, you should discuss membership issues with the Chief in a fire department and obtain their approval.
This introductory process is a good way to learn about the organization before sending in an application form. The organization will learn about you at the same time and it should make the application process easier.
When completing the application for membership, be truthful and do not conceal your deafness or any other disability you may have.
Don’t be discouraged if a department asks you to limit your roles initially. Often called a probationary period, a department often imposes limits on its newest members to ensure their safety and that their new members are “suited” for the job. Use this probationary period to learn everything you can about the agency and the way they do things. Don’t be afraid to ask why particular tasks done a certain way.
Be sure to meet all training requirements. Unfortunately, it’s necessary that deaf members need to work twice as hard as hearing members. Don’t shy away from doing “grunt” work and pitch in whenever needed.
If a department refuses to allow you to join, find out why by meeting with the Chief or agency head. If they are unavailable, meet with the membership committee chairperson. Offer to to accept reduced responsibilities for a period of time and periodically re-evaluate and add responsibilities if warranted.
If the agency continues to refuse any idea of membership, there are several options for you to pursue:
- Approach the local governmental agency that the department reports to. In some places, this is a township council or a mayor. See if they can intervene on your behalf.
- Every state has a Civil Rights or a Human Rights commission. Contact them to ask them to investigate possible discrimination.
- Contact a lawyer for further advice on how to handle the situation.
- You can also approach the local media and see if they’ll run a story on the situation. The public spotlight may be uncomfortable.
IMPORTANT: Rescue agencies typically are very private organizations. As a culture, they hate it when outsiders try to look in and try to “force” something on them. While contacting an outside agency may resolve the situation faster, the working environment inside the department may be very harsh. It is usually best to try to achieve change within the organization without going outside of the department.
Training Programs/Academies
When you attend a training program offered by an accredited academy, be sure to ask for an interpreter or any accessibility requirements well in advance. Your best bet is to start with the director of the program. Keep in mind that many agencies may not be aware of the difference between a “signer” and an interpreter. It’s best to give them the local interpreter agency’s phone number so they can contact them for questions.
The following agencies have provided interpreters or accessible services for deaf individuals or they have committed to doing so:
- Bucks County Public Safety Training Center (PA)
- Montgomery County Fire Academy (PA)
Adaptations “On the Job”
Here are some examples of how deaf rescue professionals have made adaptations to succeed in their jobs:
- Hand Signals : By far, the most common adaptation is making greater use of hand signals on the incident scene. In other words, asking for an Axe can be as easy as pointing to it or making an overhead sweeping motion (as though you were swinging an axe). One firefighter has developed a system for use with a buddy in low- or no-visibility situations:
- Minor taps: I’m OK
- Hit once: Stop
- Hit twice: Keep going
- Hit three times: Evacuate the building now.
- Technology: The fire/rescue technology sector is still fairly hearing-dependent. However, changes are slowly coming about. One major beneficial change involves PASS alarms (these devices sound a high-pitched audible alarm if the wearer has not moved for 15 seconds or if the temperature exceeds a certain level). The Grace TPASS3 PASS device allows an incident commander to order evacuations from a central station. When an order is given, the PASS device will flash and audibly alert the wearer that they need to exit. Many manufacturers are beginning to implement vibrating alerts into their devices.
- Radio communications: This is the one issue that really holds many deaf people back from advancement into officer ranks. Some areas are starting to make use of mobile data terminals which would show via text information. However, if a person has good speech abilities, they can be told what to say on the radio. On most radio systems, there’s a red light that indicates when radio traffic is being transmitted and a user can wait until traffic has cleared before beginning their transmission. AS with all hearing firefighters on radio communications:
- Speak clearly
- Speak slowly
- Have your message composed and ready before you click the microphone on
- Take a deep breath beforehand
- If the user has residual hearing, try to ask ‘Yes’ and ‘No’ questions to understand responses back from command.
|
