The Role of Fire and Rescue Team at Avon - Report Example

Running Head: Work Based Learning Work Based Learning Student’s Name Professor’s Name Subject Code and Name Date Submitted Context of the Incident This report will outline a critical incident which occurred some months ago. Immediately after undergoing a training session at Avon fire and rescue team based in Bristol, UK, our commanding officer told us that we were now ready for work at any emergency call so that we could apply what we had learned within the three months training sessions. The commanding officer emphasized that the main role of a fire-fighter is to protect life and properties from fire whatever the circumstance, apart from being the first emergency attendant at accidents including traffic and explosions. As indicated in the requirements by Bergbom, (2010, pg.267), each fire-fighter had a specific duty to perform at the scene of the accident and I was told to take the responsibility of a rescue squad in that I was supposed to take first aids to the scene of fire and help the injured until the arrival of the ambulance. Sometimes the injuries could include persons who had a heart attack or suffered other blood pressure related illnesses as a result of shock or smoke in the course of fire attack. Actual Incident On this particular day, my commanding officer called me and said that he wanted to have a word of caution to me before I attended to work. He stated that he had noticed I felt so uncomfortable with the role I had been assigned. He was concerned that I lacked enough confidence despite having been taken through mentorship classes while undertaking the training classes. The mentors in the training classes were supposed to teach us the safety precautions while at the scene and how to deal with different types of accidents while there. He then explained to me that being confident and open minded as a rescue squad was essential to fulfil my future dream as an experienced fire fighter. He told me that nothing worth having in life comes easily and I had to remain positive, motivated and focused to continue doing what it takes to get what I want in future. In his view the only way to do this was to take whatever task you were assigned with positively and do the best out of it despite discouragements from others. The office commander asked me how I felt about being a rescuer and the reason why I felt so nervous about the task. I explained that in my life I had always enjoyed participating in life saving events such as making contributions and providing basic need to those in need but not participating in events that involved dealing with accidents more especially fires. I took the lessons just because as a kid I loved the heroisms that came with being a fire-fighter and that is why I decided to become one. I also mentioned that the sight of blood in an accident has always scared me making me feel nauseas. He sympathised with me and told me that in order to succeed in this profession I had to face my fears and do all I can to conquer it. This meant that I was to voluntarily work with other rescuers even when am not at work so that I could get used to seeing blood and saving the lives of people. He also explained to me that being a fire-fighter itself is a personal sacrifice and after the work, each of the participants is taken to be heroes. He said that the nature of the job is complex and dangerous and requires organisation and team work always. He even told me that the first time he was taken to the field he was so scared and nearly ran away from the scene but he persisted on because he understood he had a mission to accomplish. As we were chatting with him he received a sudden call from the department demanding him to leave immediately to a scene of fire that had occurred when a truck carrying oil crashed with a passenger vehicle. This was so sudden to me because he told me to rush and pick my emergency tool box and follow him to the scene immediately. Significance of the Incident Having been told to be courageous I knew that by the end of this incident I should be able to prove this. I knew my future relied with the way am going to approach to my personal fears and weaknesses. The incident would expose me to an environment that was new to me and how I adapted to it meant a lot. My heroism would be proved by the end of it and I kept telling myself that I was already a hero. The commanding officer had said that this department required organisation of oneself and a teamwork and I had to comply with this in order to form part of the Avon’s fire and rescue team. The incident was an also a test used by the department to assess those who were serious from the jokers and I had to do all I can to ensure that I was listed among the best students. Being my first encounter to a death scene I knew I had to control my emotions and apply what we had been taught in the mentor class. The application of life saving skills was also to be applied and it provided a chance for me to test how much I still remembered from my classes. Main Concern at the Time of the Incident The chance of going to the scene was so unexpected to me and I was shocked at first when the commanding officer told me I was the one to take care of the patients in the scene. My major concern at the moment was that I felt like I was not competent enough to take that role immediately. I worried a lot about what would happen if the number of patients were so many than the services available or what will happen if the sight of dead bodies and blood makes me fill nauseas. My other concern was what would happen if a patient dies while I am attending to him or her, will I be penalised or taken to court? Will I be accused of not being careful enough or trained enough to undertake that responsibility? It worried me that I might not be able to help enough like the other professional fire-fighters and what will my recommendation read at the end of the test? All this ran through my mind as we rushed to the scene of the accident. Thinking and Feelings At the time of this incident many emotions ran through my mind. I realised that I was now an important member of the Avon fire and Service team and could not back out just because I was feeling afraid and anxious. I felt guilty after I realized that my commanding officer had realised that I was afraid of the task I was given in the department. His concerns were true because every time he described an accident scene t us, I would cringe or lost concentrations as my mind would race with a million questions about it would start picturing myself being burnt in the scene with the other people while helping them and all this made me so uncomfortable. As a part of the assigned rescue squad I decided to let my fears flow away and do all I can to make sure I had a good recommendation at the end of the day. The sight of the scene was not pleasant to me and I wondered if I would be able to go through the whole ordeal without raising alerts to others. Most of the passengers in the small vehicle were burnt beyond recognition and our team did all the best to put out the fire first. Being a rescue attendant I rushed to aid some of the passengers who were still alive despite being burnt. The heat was too much but I kept pressing on to ensure that none of the alive a passengers suffered more when they could be helped by me It was at this moment that I realized that being a rescue you had to be bold to face any situations. Two of the passengers I rescued did not make it out of the situation and I started blaming myself for their death. Some had internal bleeding and they had to be stitched so as to prevent excessive loss of blood. Those with major burns were separated from those with cuts so as to know exactly who to attend to first. In that instant I forgot all about my worries and concentrated on saving lives. The sight of blood seemed to me as normal and the bad nauseas feeling were not available. I then realized that what you think affects what you want to see which will affect how you feel later. On arrival of the ambulance we had rescued a total of 10 passengers out of the total 14 passengers. Those with major burns and bleeding were given a fast attention followed by those with fewer injuries (Bergbom, 2010, pg.270). All this seemed like a dream to me because I had always considered myself to be so weak and soft to face disastrous like this. At the end of the incident I felt so proud of myself and decided that I will be in the rescue team always so that I could always have a chance to give someone a second chance in life. The feeling of being in control gave me the confidence to deal with the injured patients patiently. When a patient died while attending to them gave me a mixed feeling of grief and sorrow but all this gave me the opportunity to exercise all I had learnt about while in the training. The incident made me feel like a real hero and it made me want to attend more of such incidents to enlighten myself on what to expect and what is expected to be done at every situation. I had been aware that I had a caring heart and I always looked for opportunities that would enable me to prove this. I realised that the passion to save lives was in me despite the fact that I felt so afraid when opportunities presented themselves. I regarded this incident as an open door to many more chances to come. The incident gave me the courage to attend many more such scenarios which enabled me to improve my rescue ship skills and be able to work with others as a team to bring about appositive impact. I was happy that despite helping people financially and health wise I could be called upon any time to save lives in an accident or a fire incident. Demands Being a part of a fire fighting team entails a lot of sacrifice from the participants. The main aim of a fire-fighter is to save lives and this could pose as a challenge when you found yourselves in more complicated scenarios. An example of such complicated scenario is when there has been fire due to mechanical problem in industry or quarry. Mostly the participants are trapped inside a burning building which needs evacuation. This incident was so demanding to me because it forced me to acknowledge an area in life that I was always afraid to face. The sight of dead people and blood always scared me but being in such a scenario i had no option but to deal with it forcefully. Although I knew that I could help save lives in different areas of life i realized that if I wanted to have a good recommendation and be able to realize my career dream as a professional fire fighter I had to work on this weaknesses and fear. The incident also kept me on toes in that being a fire-fighter I should always be ready to be called at any time of the day or night. Whenever an emergency occurred I could not avoid the situation because I had committed myself fully to it. I also found a lot of pressure in that being on the rescue squad it required one to read widely and learn about various treatments to most accidents. I had to learn doing small injuries that would aid patients from excessive bleeding by the time an ambulance arrives at the scene of fire or accident. The position demanded that in the incident demanded that I should always be ready to work at any time of the day or night depending on the urgency of the situations. The incident required that I apply all that I had read about while in the training and this meant being keen and careful when dealing with fire incidents to avoid spreading the injury to yourself. Impact on Studies Although this incident caused a lot of pressure on my studying skills realized that t was significant in my future profession as a professional fire-fighter. I used to think that being a fire-fighter just requires putting off fire but I realized it entailed a lot of other sectors. It required one to be conversant with treatments of different accidents starting from minor cuts to even complex surgeries. I always thought that there is a choice of work in the department concerning where you wanted to be placed because I really dreaded meeting dead bodies but all this was proved wrong by this incident. As a result of the conversation with my commanding officer I was forced to reconsider what life meant and decided to face the fears that hindered me from reaching my career dream. Fortunately he gave me tips on how to curb my fears and regain my confidence back. With the help of the other members in the team I was able to look at situations differently and work hard because nothing came in life so easily. I even organised to voluntarily work with the members of the other fire services so that I could sufficient experience in dealing with tricky scenarios of accidents. I dedicated a lot of my time studying emergency medical books and looked for opportunities to apply whatever that I read. This incident was therefore very important because without it I would not have known that I could face the blood phobia. It made me realize that the way you think affects the way you feel. It gave me an opportunity to reach out to different parts of the country including going to both rural and urban centres thereby learning a lot about the geographical locations of places. More importantly it has helped me build a good relationship with the public. Most of those I rescue come to our place of work just to thank me for saving their lives and this gives me more confidence to do more of such work. Working in a group has never been easy for me but this incident made me appreciate the need of working together as a group. Developing great confidence in dealing with injured patients in a fire tragedy may lead to me to being more confident in dealing with major injuries like performing a surgery on patents in need of a quick and unavailable medical service. It may lead me to feeling more in control when assigned to do the job when no one is around to help and feeling less nervous when facing death of an injured patient when attending to them in an accident. Impact on Future Role My commander was true in stating that must be ready to .work under pressure sometimes especially when you are called to work in odd hours of the night. Being focused, determined and motivated are traits that accompany a professional fire-fighter. Such an incident is one among the many disappointing and frustrating moments one is supposed to face in pursuit of becoming professional in future. It helped me to recognize my personal areas of weaknesses and doing all can to conquer them. This was important because it now allow me to face critics with an open mind while at the same time learning from the mistakes committed. The incident enlightened me that becoming a fire-fighter was not an easy task. It takes a great deal of perseverance, dedication, persistence and patient to become one. Nothing comes so easily especially when you want to have one of the best careers that one would ever dream of. I learnt from my commander that what you give is what you get and so to become a professional in future you have to work hard and learn a lot from the daily experiences of life issues. Not everyone who starts out to be a fire-fighter ends up being one but it all accounts to the efforts that you have built in the number of years you have served as one. Averagely it takes 4 to 8years to become a full time paid fire fighter in the UK. The incident demonstrated to me that in order to make any progress in life or have a positive impact in the .lives of others, you must be ready to recognize your passion and build on in until when what you want materializes. Apart from this it also demonstrated that you have to admit and recognize your area of weakness so that the necessary measures to curb it are identified. Often the first step to dealing with a problem is accepting that change is inevitable and I maybe more able to impart this information to the public especially the patients after a fire incident having experienced this incident myself. Overall, this incident has had a positive impact in my personal life, studies and on the development of skills needed in my future career. Bibliography Bergbom Ingegerd, 2010. Being first on the scene of an accident-Experience of doing a pre-hospital emergency care, Scandavian Journal of Caring Sciences, volume 24.issue 2, pp 266-273 Read More