Improving Safety Through the Power of Story

Call it luck, intuition, training, or experience, but the difference between a line of duty death and a near miss is often a slight shift in the chronology of unfolding events or positioning of those involved.

  It is crucial that we use these near misses as teachable moments, with the expectation that firefighters can learn from each other’s experiences. Storytelling is a time-honored tradition in the fire service and it’s often how we learn best.

What better way to capture, tell, and share those stories than in a secure online reporting system that also provides customized reporting and analysis?

The Firefighter Near Miss Reporting System simplifies the reporting of near miss and reportable events and enables greater use of report data. Information in the reports is used to identify trends related to emerging hazards and develop new training materials, making it easier than ever for firefighters, EMS providers, and command staff to learn from situations their peers have already experienced.

This June, the International Association of Fire Chiefs (IAFC) takes near miss reporting and safety training to the next level with its launch of Department Near Miss+, a subscription-based service built on the same high tech platform as the national program, but focused on individual departments. Benefits of Near Miss+ include:

A secure and simple user interface for creating, reviewing, and editing department reports.
A one-step review process and archive system for reportable events.
The ability to select how reports are shared within the department (e.g., all members or sub-groups).
View, search, download, and print department specific reports.
Generate customized report outputs using templates prepared by department reviewers.
Analytics allowing departments to compare their data with national data from the Firefighter Near Miss Reporting System.
Create specialized training lessons and materials focusing on issues and trends specific to a department’s own data and reports.

Each scene poses its own unique hazards, and we can never know enough or be too prepared to mitigate each incident. Safety is the responsibility of every responder, but we can't recognize hazards if we don't know what to look for or anticipate. Near Miss+ provides department personnel with another tool they can draw on when faced with an on scene hazard.

For example, company officers can use the reports as company-level training exercises around the kitchen table to promote discussion, progressive thinking, hazards recognition, and safety concerns.   At the command-staff level, Near Miss+ reports can raise awareness of data, trends, and safety concerns that may demonstrate a need for a change in a department’s operational policies.

By improving how departments track and analyze dangers that in the past may have gone unnoticed or that might have been forgotten, Near Miss+ helps them develop the appropriate training and action plans to minimize the likelihood that such dangers will occur in the future.

Learn more about Near Miss+ at the IAFC booth (#2024) during FIRE 2015 at the Turning Stone, June 18-20. You can also contact Laura Bell, Near Miss+ program manager, by email or phone at (703) 537-4810.