THE INSTITUTION OF FIRE ENGINEERS THE INTERNATIONAL ORGANISATION FOR FIRE PROFESSIONALS – an interview with the Doctor A free preconference presentation for the IFE Conference Gold Coast 2016 IFE WA Group, in association with IFE Australia Branch and ERGT Australia are proud to host a presentation by celebrated Fire Service researcher Dr Katherine Lamb MIFireE. A presentation on the value of using simulators for the assessment of competence in Incident Commanders. This presentation will be particularly relevant for Fire Service and Industry personnel who take charge of major incidents. Only a limited number of seats will be available for this presentation. Please to reserve a place or phone Light refreshments will be provided at the venue along with an opportunity to visit ERGT’s Oil and Gas Industry, Incident Command Simulation Centre. This free presentation is open to all IFE Members, Industry, Fire Service, Bushfire and Volunteer Personnel. Incident Command, Simulation Training and Assessment 24 th October – 1200hrs 7 Compass Road, Jandakot WA 6164

THE INSTITUTION OF FIRE ENGINEERS THE INTERNATIONAL ORGANISATION FOR FIRE PROFESSIONALS Developing Decision-Making Skills Virtual reality will never fully replace real life simulation, nor should it. However, if the scenarios created are realistic, achievable, and manageable given a candidate’s current level of command skill, expertise, and—importantly—appropriateness to the role, the maximum benefit can be achieved. Crucial competencies, including communication skills, usage of resources and information, and command strategy, are needed to resolve both simulated and actual incidents. Within this framework, candidates are assessed on their ability to make the ‘right’ dynamic decision based on their own knowledge and evaluation of the incident rather than learning how to apply a scripted list of incident decisions that may not fit the particular incident. It establishes a level of assurance by providing a robust assessment and training methodology. This ensures that organizations are able to appoint, train, and assess their incident commanders. They can also be comfortable in their knowledge that during crisis situations, ‘They have the right person making the right decisions, at the right time, for the right reasons.’ To date, this process has been adopted as best practice by many fire service organizations. Dr Katherine Lamb presents some insights into this area of training, assessment and simulator development within Fire Services Dr Katherine Lamb MIFireE, MSc (Oxon), BSc (hons) Dr Katherine Lamb is a respected authority on the Incident Command training and assessment. She received her MSc from the University of Oxford and her doctorate at the University of London, and worked as an accomplished and well published research scientist before joining the Fire Service in For the last 4 years she specialised in Incident Command and crisis decision making, and developed and established the Introspect Model. This development tool is used to train and assess command competence and decision making, and is widely used within the UK fire service domain. In addition, she has published several scientific, peer-reviewed articles on the origin and application of competence assessment methodologies within the Fire Service environment. The Reality Gap There still appears to be a gap in understanding between those academics who have observed and analysed the performance and characteristics of commanders and the practitioners who train and appoint those commanders, or indeed who exercise command themselves. Unfortunately, this gap between the academics and the practitioners working within this crisis decision making/incident command domain still remains. Although the academics are trying to develop strategies and studies to enable the emergency services community to perform more efficiently and effectively these are not always explained or presented to the practitioners in accessible or demonstrable terms. Equally, the emergency services community is often distrustful of academics and is resistant to change and challenges to long held beliefs and practices. Dr Lamb’s research aims to bridge this gap.