Fire Department Command Board / Tactical Worksheets

The Incident Commander is responsible for strategic-level accountability in the IDLH environment.  Incident Commanders that write things down are able to keep accurate accountability of resources in the IDLH environment.  
Aside from keeping accurate accountability the IDLH Tactical Worksheet™ also provides the incident commander a checklist for various types of incidents. IDLH Tactical Worksheets are the easiest and most useful fire department command board available.

The benefits of a checklist are numerous.  Checklists will boost efficiency and reduce mistakes.  Mistakes while crews are operating in the IDLH environment can be catastrophic.  IDLH Tactical Worksheet® helps the incident commander ensure that nothing is forgotten.
The IDLH Tactical Worksheet™ provides checklist(s) for the following incidents:

• Structure Fire
• MAYDAY -NEW
• Brush Fire
• Tech Rescue
• Hazmat
• ARFF
• Dive 
• MCI

The IDLH Tactical Worksheet™ is made from rigid material with a dry erase finish.  IDLH Tactical Worksheet™ is designed to be used with a dry erase or wet erase marker.Both markers allow quick, accurate accountability in fast paced incidents.

IDLH Tactical Worksheet™ is recommended for incident commander that operates inside the vehicle.  Utilizing a Steering Wheel desk provides a solid writing foundation. Desk can be purchased from Amazon.

IDLH Tactical Worksheet™ has a 11.5"X17" base.  This base is where accountability takes place.  Regardless of the incident accountability remains the top priority so it is always viewable.The checklists provided have tabs to easily go to an incident.  These tabbed sheets are 11.5X6" and made from the same material as the base. 

IDLH Tactical Worksheet™ was designed for the majority of incidents that a fire department will encounter.  Type IV and Type V incidents is the bulk of all fire department incidents.  If an incident escalates beyond a Type IV the IDLH Tactical Worksheet™ will make upgrading a breeze.

Checklists

IDLH Tactical Worksheets™ provide a checklist for the most common incidents. During an incident an incident commander has a lot to do and the last thing they need is to spend more time wondering if they are forgetting anything.  In the article, "The Power of Checklists" by Brett and Kate McKay they list the following benefits of a checklist:

1. Checklists verify that the necessary minimum gets done. With increasing complexity comes the temptation to skip over the stupid simple stuff and instead focus on the “sexy” parts of one’s work and life. Because the stupid simple stuff is so stupid and simple, we often fool ourselves that it’s not important in the grand scheme of things. But as we’ve seen, it’s often our most basic tasks that can spell the difference between success and disaster.Checklists act as a check against our ego, and remind us to make sure the stupid, simple, but absolutely necessary stuff gets done.

2. Checklists free up mental RAM. People often bristle at using a checklist because it feels constraining. They want to be flexible and creative, and the checklist seems to take away their autonomy. For this reason, implementing checklists among surgeons has proven difficult, even though studies show checklists dramatically reduce the number of preventable, life-threatening errors. Surgeons feel that their work requires an intuitive judgment that’s born from years of training and experience and can’t be reduced to a simple checklist.What these stubborn surgeons fail to see is that checklists provide them more freedom to exercise their professional judgment. They don’t have to think about remembering to do the stupid simple stuff because there’s a checklist for that. Offloading the need to remember basic tasks frees up the brain to concentrate on the important stuff. For surgeons, this means they’re left with more mental RAM to focus on handling unforeseen problems that often come up when you’re slicing someone open.Checklists don’t replace judgment, they enhance it.

3. Checklists instill discipline. Checklists continue to play a vital role in aviation. Every time pilots and co-pilots take off and land, they verbally go through a checklist. A lot of what they review is of course the stupid simple stuff, but it’s important stupid simple stuff. When you’re responsible for the lives of 120 passengers, you have to have the discipline to make sure you do even the small things right. If there’s ever an incident in air, investigators will go back to see if the pilot and co-pilot went through the checklist. There’s no fudging with it. You either did it or you didn’t.Because checklists provide a binary yes/no answer, they instill discipline in the person that uses it. Research shows that giving someone a checklist for a task increases his or her chances of completing it. There’s something about having a checklist that spurs people to get stuff done. Perhaps it’s the dopamine rush that comes with checking something off, or the concreteness checklists provide, or a combination of the two.

4. Checklists save time. A common complaint about checklists is they take too much time to go through. But running through a checklist need not take very long, and research shows that doing so will actually save you time in the long run. Because checklists can prevent errors caused by skipping basic steps, you spend less time fixing mistakes and more time doing constructive work.