When I started my fire service career, I began a collection. Lots of firefighters have collections. Some collect fire figurines, for others its patches, I even know a few guys that collect full-sized retired engines and trucks. Some of the things I collect came easy; others I had to dig for. By now you’re getting ready to log off, so I’ll spill what it is that I collect. I collect memories.
If you’re a fan of Harry Potter, you’ll probably remember the Pensieve in Dumbledore’s office. If you’re not a fan, it was a bird-bath type of contraption that the most wise and powerful wizard used to store memories. He could look into his memories and bring them back in full detail. If someone else looked into his memories, they could observe Dumbledore’s memories as if they had been there too. Dumbledore used this bit of wizardry to carefully review long-past memories seeking out minute details, while trying to solve mysteries. Even the most wise and powerful wizard admitted that he couldn’t recall every detail regarding all his memories. Dumbledore shared some of his memories with Harry in order to “teach” him things about his enemy, Voldemort.
How unfortunate it is that we don’t have Pensieve’s in the fire service. Imagine being able to see, through the eyes of each the officers you’ve been assigned to; all the fires they have fought and learn the lessons they have learned. (I’m sure Vincent Dunn would have a mess of memories available on DVD’s).
In the 1980’s, the military wanted to learn the decision making process of highly effective combat officers. What they found was a process called Recognition Primed Decision Making (RPDM). They found that effective fire officers too used RPDM when confronted with on-scene situations. To view a very informative report on this process go to:
http://www.standto.com/rpdm.html
In short, both military combat officers and effective fire officers have a “slide-show” in their brain. When confronted with a situation, in a nano-second, the officer views their slide-show to try to best match the current situation with one that they have seen in the past. Sometimes there isn’t an exact match, but usually if you’re an experienced officer you’ve seen something similar…enough.
So now that you have a better idea about what RPDM is, what can you do with this information? As I said earlier in this posting, some of my collection came easy like learning not to touch the steel doors of the burn building without your gloves on no matter how long the fire has been out (wow, that hurt!). Other memories I had to dig for. Back when I was riding the ambulance (yes, I did!), if we had a call where the paramedic did some critical interventions, I would bug them on the way home to explain to me, what was physically happening with the patient, what intervention they did, and it changed the physiological status (or was supposed to) of the patient. I was lucky I worked with a lot of good paramedics back-in-the-day. To this day, current paramedics sometimes call me a “closet-medic”. I usually have a pretty good idea what is going on with the patient and how to alter the course though interventions.
Here is where you come in. If you’re a seasoned officer, you must share your on-scene observations and how it affected your decision making process with those with whom you work. If you’re a young-buck, ask questions without out being a pest. If an officer knows you are seeking guidance to fill your “slide-show”, they will most likely share their experiences (often in the form of war-stories) with you. There is a lot to learn.
In closing, I would like to acknowledge one of those great fire officers, and who turned my on to the concept of RPDM many, many years ago. Chief George Morgan (there is a Pensieve I’d like to glare into…or maybe not! ;-)) was always a wealth of knowledge. It was years later that I further explored the concept that I formally knew what he was talking about.
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