Emergency rescue team coordination and communication
Team coordination and communication test whether you can work inside a command structure, pass accurate information, and keep accountability of people and tasks.
Core rules
- The incident command system provides one incident commander, unity of command, common terminology, and a manageability rule: keep the span of control to roughly three to seven people per supervisor.
- Roles are explicit: team leader, safety officer, medic, rescue technician, and recorder. Know your task, its purpose, and the end state before you start.
- Radio traffic is clear text, with no codes or jargon, and is planned before keying the microphone: who you are calling, who you are, where you are, what you need.
- Emergency traffic and mayday calls have priority and must be acknowledged; everyone else keeps the channel clear.
- Accountability is continuous: a personnel accountability report confirms who is in the hazard area and must be repeatable within seconds.
- Handovers use a fixed format, such as MIST (mechanism, injuries, signs, treatment) or ATMIST (age, time, mechanism, injuries, signs, treatment).
- When radio fails, use pre-agreed fallbacks: hand signals, whistles, or runners, and confirm receipt.
Worked example
Your team has extricated a casualty and an ambulance crew arrives. Reasoning: give an ATMIST handover, covering age, time of injury, mechanism, suspected injuries, vital signs, and treatment given, including tourniquet time. Confirm the receiving clinician has understood, hand over documents and belongings, and only then return to your task and report to your team leader.
Traps
- Using local codes or abbreviations that the receiving team does not share.
- Transmitting without a plan and blocking the channel during an emergency.
- Leaving your assigned role to help elsewhere without telling the leader, breaking accountability.
- Handing over a casualty without the mechanism, the time, or the tourniquet time.
- Assuming a message was received because you sent it.