ICS And NIMS Analysis

Medical jargon is often misconstrued and difficult to follow for common folk, however, in emergency situations, miscommunication can be the difference between life and death. During the 1970s, a series of catastrophic wildfires in California revealed how flawed our emergency medical services were. Lack of communication between urgent care providers and other responders resulted in millions of dollars in property damage and a high death toll. This event facilitated the government and other agencies to create a multijurisdictional system that would increase organization and reduce confusion in future calamities. Implementing this system has drastically improved communication in emergency medical care and the transition between organizations. In order to
Independent agencies often develop separate protocol, resulting in a specialized dialect. Although words and acronyms may be clear to one person, in a multiagency setting they can be misleading. In order to maintain understanding amongst different corporations, it is necessary to employ common terminology to ensure team cohesion and communication. ICS and NIMS has a specific language set that helps bring consistency to all responders. These terms are applied to all chains of command and resources. The precise guidelines of these programs increase cooperation and ease the transfer between care. Another feature of ICS and NIMS is the use of plain language. Although this point may seem trivial, plain language is imperative for communication between many people. Plain language can be defined as clear, succinct writing that is designed to ensure the reader understands as quickly and completely as possible. It needs to be easy to read and understand. In the EMS community, this involves writing only in English and eliminating words and phrases that others may not understand. All written and oral reports in EMS are required to follow this