NFPA Journal - Spring 2024 - 45

SELECTIONS FROM THE NFPA BLOGS ON
CODES, STANDARDS, AND COMPLIANCE
NFPA.ORG/BLOGS
As it has for decades, the information in
NFPA 1001 will serve as a foundational
element of the new standard, due out
later this year.
A summary of how the development
of NFPA 1001 is in the Origin
section of the document. " In 1971, the
Joint Council of National Fire Service
Organizations (JCNFSO) created the
National Professional Qualifications
Board (NPQB) for the fire service to
facilitate the development of nationally
applicable performance standards for
uniformed fire service personnel, " the
overview reads. " On December 14, 1972,
the board established four technical
committees to develop those standards
using the National Fire Protection
Association standards-making system.
The initial committees addressed the
following career areas: fire fighter, fire
officer, fire service instructor, and fire
inspector and investigator. "
From this original effort, the group of
professional qualification standards from
NFPA grew to over 25 standards-now
16 as a result of consolidation efforts-
addressing more than 100 positions
for which a person can be professionally
qualified. Even though the history of
these standards goes back five decades,
questions are still asked about what
professional qualifications are, why they
are needed, and what the advantages are
of being professionally qualified.
In most cases, there is an expectation
that those who are in positions of
public trust are competent to provide
a service to the community they are
sworn to serve. Law enforcement officers,
nurses, doctors, teachers, and even
cosmetologists are all licensed by states
and professionally recognized through
a process of education, experience, and
testing. Fire service leaders in the 1970s
understood that the fire service needed
parity in the eyes of the public, and that
establishing an equivalent qualification
system would help fire services receive
support from their communities.
Dr. Denis Onieal, the former deputy
fire administrator at the U.S. Fire
Administration, offers insights into
what fire and emergency services
personnel need to know about professional
development, and how training,
education, experience, and certification
are linked. His presentation " Your
Fire Service Career: Where Are You
Going? Will You Be Ready? " , can be
found on the Fire and Emergency
Services Higher Education Initiative
website (usfa.fema.gov/nfa/about/
feshe). A key takeaway from the
presentation is the need to be professionally
qualified. The presentation
was first given in 2016, but it continues
to provides valuable guidance
on the need for the fire service to be
recognized as a profession.
The future of professional qualification
standards relies upon those who
are engaged in the process. In turn,
the process relies on active engagement
in order to keep professional
qualifications relevant to organizations
such as the International Fire
Service Accreditation Congress (IFSAC),
the National Board on Fire Service
Professional Qualifications (ProBoard),
and the accredited agencies they
oversee to evaluate individuals to a
standard established by their peers.
The Center for Public Safety Excellence
(CPSE) offers credentialing of individuals
and accreditation of agencies that
provide emergency services.
To keep professional qualification
standards up to date and relevant
to the positions and duties of those
active in emergency services, NFPA
relies on the feedback of stakeholders
through the document revision
process. Technical committees overseeing
professional qualification
standards are always seeking volunteers
to serve as subject matter experts
to review input and to keep standards
up to date. To learn more about the
NFPA standards development process
and how you can get involved, visit
nfpa.org/for-professionals/codes-andstandards/standards-development.
For
more on the development of NFPA
1010, visit nfpa.org/1010.
BOB FASH is emergency services specialist
at NFPA.
Fire service
proqual, part II:
NFPA 1020
By Chelsea Rubadou
F
OR THE PAST few revision
cycles of NFPA
1021, Standard for Fire
Officer Professional
Qualifications, the public
has submitted input and comments
to add emergency medical services
(EMS) professional qualifications to
the existing fire officer duties. With the
continuous evolution of fire-based EMS
and the absence of a national or international
standard on leadership or
management for EMS professionals, the
need for such requirements is extensive.
Why was this concept rejected for so
long? Opposition to the idea of incorporating
EMS professional qualifications
into the fire officer requirements stems
from concerns of potential impacts on
training and certification, specifically for
organizations that do not operate within
fire-based EMS systems. Opponents of
the inclusion did not want to impose
EMS-centered requirements on departments
that did not perform EMS
activities. Unfortunately, this hesitation
left a gap in standardization of training
and certification for EMS professionals
in a growing field of pre-hospital care,
medical cross-training, and fire department
expansion into all-hazards response
and prevention.
In 2023, though, the time was finally
right. At last year's First Draft Meeting,
an innovative team of individuals from
the standard's technical committee
pushed once more to address this critical
need in the field, and they proposed
to achieve this by writing separate, standalone
chapters for EMS officers, thus
eliminating the impacts on Fire Officers
I-IV and quelling previous concerns.
At the same time, the NFPA emergency
response and responder safety consolidation
project resulted in combining
NFPA .ORG/JOURNAL * NFPA JOURNAL | 45
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NFPA Journal - Spring 2024

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of NFPA Journal - Spring 2024
