Fire Department Training Program
Version 1.3
Read Me Text
Introduction
This program is intended to help small and medium size fire departments track their members’ status for compliance with PESH training requirements. This program was written to specifically outline some of the basic PESH training for New York State fire fighters (both volunteer and paid departments). The format of this program makes it easy for any employer to copy one or more of the training tabs and use the program to track employee training on virtually any topic.
In general employers are to ensure that employees receive the required training prior to performing their assigned job duties. Employers are not required to use this program to document their employees training history. Record keeping can be successfully performed in a number of different ways. If your department chooses, this program, with regular data entries, can be used to track the requirements of 1910.120 Hazardous Materials and Emergency Response, 1910.134 Respiratory Protection, 1910.156 Fire Brigade and 1910.1030 Bloodborne Pathogens.
To utilize this program the user will need a personal computer with Microsoft Excel 1997 or 2000 version installed on it. It is strongly recommended to install the Training Program twice, once as a working copy and one as a backup should the working copy become corrupted. Save the program under two different names. For example use “Master” and “Village of ______Fire Department Training Records.
When the program has been successfully installed, the user will see the basic Excel format containing Tab 1, Page 1 “Annual Fire Fighters Training”. In the bottom left corner notice the tabs marked “Active, New, PESH, Hazmat, Bloodborne and Respiratory” Clicking on these tabs will bring up a training sheet for those corresponding topics.
Annual Fire Fighters Training
Assign a unique number to each active fire fighter (this can be used to correspond with an existing numbering system, like the cowtag numbers used for accountability). Fire fighters numbers can be added or the numbers assigned for fire fighters can be reduced if the user wishes. Starting on the “New” tab, list each fire fighters name and note the assigned number to the left. Whenever the firefighters name is entered or changed in the “New” tab, the change automatically appears at the corresponding number through out the program. Note it is important to add or delete names only from the “New” tab, if a name is accidentally deleted from another tab the formula in that box will be deleted with it. To fix this or any mistake left click on the blue back arrow found at the top left of your screen, right below Insert in the pull down menus. For convenience sake, highlighting the name of any new fire fighters will help the record keeper find that name quicker when working in the “New” tab.
The annual training requirement for fire fighters is addressed under 29 CFR 1910.156 (c)(1) through 156(c)(4). This describes who will be trained, when they will be trained and how they will be trained. To find out what the annual fire fighters safety training must entail, refer to a letter dated September 14, 1985, written by Stuart Schrank , former Assistant Director of Safety and Health for New York State Department of Labor. See Attachment A of this “read me” text for a copy of this letter and training guideline.
In this letter to New York State Fire Fighter Associations, there is an attached guideline, which shows examples of some in-house training subjects. The letter goes on to state that PESH does not intend to mandate the precise time each section of the training should take. “We feel strongly that each fire department should tailor safety and health training to its own equipment and to factors peculiar to the locality involved since this training is not designed to make fire fighters more proficient in fire fighting, but is oriented towards fire fighters’ personal safety and health.”
An agreement was also reached relating to the duration of annual training to new and experienced fire fighters. New fire fighters are required to receive at least15 hours of safety training prior to performing duties as an active fire fighter. Once the 15-hour training has been successfully completed, the fire fighter is not considered “new” anymore and will need to complete the 8 hours of annual training as an active fire fighter during the next training year. All active fire fighters will receive 8 hours of safety training every year. Bloodborne Pathogens training can be used towards the 8 and 15 hour requirement.
This is reflected in the Fire Department Training Program. Training topics and time durations listed under Tab 1, Page 1 “Annual Fire Fighters Training” and Tab 2, Page 1 “Annual Fire Fighters Training for New Members” correspond with the training requirements of the PESH standards. The program is setup to track the amount of time spent under each topic of the fire fighters safety training (time spent can be entered to the nearest tenth, as in 3.2 hours or .75 for 45 minutes). The program is designed to add the entries and report the total in the last column “Total Hrs”. Under the “Active” Tab, when 8 training hours are completed, an “X” is automatically entered under the column “Training Satisfied” (for “New” 15 hours is required).
The program is set up to track the annual training by “Training Year”. If a fire fighter is required to receive 8 hours of safety training annually, a start date must be established. The Fire Department Training Program is set up to count 365 days from the “Start of the Training Year”. The fire fighter needs to repeat the 8-hour training requirement 365 days from the “Start of the Training Year”. The Department can use a calendar year; another words active fire fighters must receive 8 hours of annual training within a particular calendar year. Or the Department can track the annual training any time in between, say June 1st to May 30th. The Fire Department Training Program can be used to track the training requirement either way.
Each time the program is started, the current date is displayed in the heading. The Department can check the status of the “Annual Fire Fighter Training” at anytime. It is important for fire departments to retain the actual sign-in sheets and lesson plans used to outline the subject taught. This documentation can be used to further justify that the training requirements have been properly met.
Password Protected
The Fire Department Training Program has Password-Protected and Locked Fields. This is intended to protect the hidden formulas that add up the training hours and the fields that show training to be current. To highlight a name, or change the color to any row or column, the screen needs to be unprotected. To unprotect the screen, click on the Tools pull down menu, click on Protection, and then click on Unprotect sheet. The password for all protected sheets is a small “a”.
The formula used for the “Annual Fire Fighters Training” simply ads the hours for each topic. When the hourly entries within a particular row satisfy the formula, an “X” is used to show the condition was met. The program has built in features designed to help reduce clerical errors. For instance when a future date is entered an error message is displayed. The current date in the upper part of the sheet is a protected field, if you try to change the date an error message will occur. The fields marked “Training Status” is a protected field, the program is designed to check training required by default. If the formula on the training sheet is satisfied the program will change the “X” to the Training Satisfied column. If the record keeper accidentally places an “X” in the Training Satisfied column an error message will occur. What is not password protected is the training topics, the Department is free to change this field as they feel is needed.
Sometimes an experienced user may want to change the formula that is hidden in the “Training Status” column from 365 days to maybe 330 or 310 days. This would indicate that training is due a month or two before the deadline. The Department would then have ample time to arrange for training in the required subjects. Since there is no technical support available for this program, only record keepers with knowledge of Excel formulas should attempt to change the formulas.
To change the formula, copy a page or highlight the color in a Locked Field, move your cursor to the area you want to unlock. To unlock this field, left click on the Format pull down menu, then click on Cells. In the Format Cells windows, left click on the Protection tab. To unlock the formatted cell, click on the check mark in the box next to Locked. This will unlock the formatted cells. To learn more about Locking and Protecting a worksheet, refer to Excel Help.
How to create a copy of a page
To copy a tab from this workbook to a new workbook, right click on the tab you wish to copy, (lower left) ex. right click on the BLOOD tab. From the pop up box, left click on Move or Copy. From the Move or Copy box, use the pull down menu titled “To” and choose “(new book)”, make sure you check the box marked “Create a copy”. The result will be a new workbook with one tab marked blood.
Or if you prefer you can block and copy after creating a new workbook.
HAZMAT Operations
The PESH interpretation of 29 CFR 1910.120 (q) requires fire departments to be First Responders Operations Level ready. The standard requires any fire fighter that responds to a potential hazardous materials incident to maintain at least this level of competency. One way to achieve this level of competency is by successfully completing the 8-hour Operations Level course offered by the NYS Fire Academy. To maintain this level of competency, section 120(q)(8) states that employees that have received the Operations level training shall receive annual refresher training of sufficient content and duration to maintain their level of competencies.
If a fire fighter receives the initial 8-hour course, he is in compliance with the training directive for the next year. If a fire fighter received the training some years ago and no refresher training in the interim, how does this Department come into compliance with this individual? Provide refresher training “of sufficient content and duration” and ensure that the individual is proficient in the subjects described for Awareness Level and Operations Level 1910.120(q)(6) of the standard.
The program is set up to track the present training status of a particular fire fighter by referring to the current day and comparing it to the last date training was received. If the date of the last training occurred less than 365 days ago the program automatically checks “X” “Current” under Training Status. If the training date is more than 365 days from the last training date “Training Required” is checked “X”.
Bloodborne Pathogens
The PESH interpretation of 29 CFR 1910.1030 mandates that all active fire fighters have occupational exposure to blood and other potentially infectious body fluids (OPIM). Therefore minimally all active fire fighters are covered by this standard. The employer is required to create a written plan which clearly states who the Program Administrator is and how the Department will administrate the requirements of the standard. The employer is required to train all employees that have occupational exposure. The standard states exactly what the training must entail. After the written program is created and the training is performed the employer must offer the Hepatitis B vaccination series to all employees affected by the standard.
The employer should have the ability to determine each employee’s vaccination status to the extent intended by the standard. The employer must maintain medical records so that the Program Administrator can verify the status of each firefighters vaccination. All employees with occupational exposure must either receive the Hepatitis B vaccination series or sign a Declination Statement. The employer must ensure that employees that accept the vaccination series complete the 3 vaccinations within the series; otherwise this employee has not received the degree of protection intended by this standard.
The employer is required by the medical records section of the standard to maintain records indicating the vaccination status of each employee. Either the employer has records showing the employee has completed the vaccination series or the employee signed a Declination Statement.
The Training Program is designed to help the Department track each of these requirements. The tab marked “BLOOD” helps track the annual refresher-training requirement of the standard. The program checks the training date and compares it to the current date. If the date of the last training occurred less than 365 days ago the program automatically checks “X” “Current” under Training Status. If the training date is more than 365 days from the last training date “Training Required” is checked “X”.
Other features on this page helps the Department track if the Hepatitis B vaccination series was completed or the Declination Statement is on file. Both of these fields require manual entries and the program provides no verification or formula to track this field. The intent is, through a casual glance the record keeper has a manual field to show verification of the vaccination or the Declination and the date it occurred.