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Employment Standards for Australian Urban Firefighters: Part 1: The Essential, Physically Demanding Tasks
Nigel A S Taylor1, Hugh H K Fullagar, Brendan J Mott
1Centre for Human and Applied Physiology, School of Medicine, University of Wollongong, Wollongong, New South Wales, Australia (Dr Taylor, Mr Fullagar, Dr Sampson, Dr Groeller); and Fire & Rescue New South Wales, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia (Mr Mott).
Objective:
This communication is the first of four describing the development of defensible firefighter-selection tests. The purpose was to identify a subset of essential, physically demanding tasks performed by contemporary urban firefighters.
Methods:
From existing procedural documentation and job analyses, 11 fire-station visits and interviews with 106 firefighters, and one focus-group meeting, 31 physically demanding tasks were identified and incorporated into a workforce survey. Using this tool, firefighters rated the importance, perceived difficulty, typical task durations, and annual performance frequency of each task.
Results:
Data from 989 respondents were analyzed, enabling a consolidation of these tasks into a subset of essential activities.
Conclusions:
These processes yielded a content-valid list of 15 essential, physically demanding tasks covering the full width of duties performed by urban firefighters from Australia's largest fire and rescue organization.
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