Field Training Officer Qualities

Field Training Officer Qualities

• An effective Field Training Officer (FTO) should be professional, compassionate, honest and have integrity
• A FTO needs a desire to educate and lead others, have understanding and patience
• Important qualities are strong communication skills that convey empathy
• An FTO needs to be organized, motivated, detailed oriented, confident and fair
• It is important for an FTO to be open to receiving feedback

Teacher/Evaluator Role

• As an FTO, teaching and evaluating a trainee's abilities and knowledge is a primary responsibility.
• Trainees need to understand the assessment process, including why they are being evaluated
• The KSA (Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities) and career goals of trainees should factor into evaluations.
• Being an instructor for GREMS is a desired role for an FTO.
• The position requires patience and knowledge.

Sympathy and Empathy

• FTOs should show sympathy to trainees and assist them
• FTOs should remember the reasons trainees are present.
• Maintaining appropriate physical and emotional distance as an FTO is key

FTO Professional Boundaries

• FTOs should not be a trainee's friend or therapist during the training period.
• Professional distance helps avoid conflicts of interest and ethical concerns.

Positive FTO Attitude

• A positive attitude can drastically improve training effectiveness.
• FTOs should promote win-win scenarios, celebrate achievements and aim to be inspirational
• It is important to recognize and applaud growth
• Positive attitudes are contagious in a productive training environment.

Constructive FTO Criticism

• Constructive criticism should acknowledge strengths and use feedback loops.
• Enforce positivity in approaches, while communicating effectively and efficiently (both written and oral)
• For training programs to succeed be open, honest, and set clear expectations to facilitate trainee success.

Positive Feedback Methods

• Providing regular and constructive feedback, while avoiding assumptions about trainee knowledge, is crucial
• All evaluations and feedback sessions should be documented for a clear record of trainee progress.
• FTOs should seek feedback from their trainees, as feedback loops are important in any learning environment.
• Being open to constructive criticism ensures an FTO improve their own performance and that of the trainees.

Addressing Difficult Topics

• Emergency Services is a particularly stressful job
• Discussions about death, PTSD, stress, grieving and coping mechanisms need to be part of your daily tasks with trainees
• Department resources should be provided, such as CISM team members and contact information.

FTO Patience

• Patience is essential for an FTO
• The Dunning-Kruger Effect means new people overestimate themselves and that more experienced people underestimate themselves
• New trainees will be unaware of what they do not know, so remaining patient and guiding them is key
• It is important to step back and relax when trainees struggle with new skills
• Understanding and patience will make trainees receptive to learning and build trust.

FTO Encouragement and Flexibility

• It is important to encourage trainees to have fun while learning
• Trainees need freedom to fail and make mistakes
• A safe, supportive environment will allows them to build confidence and learn from errors
• Trainees are individuals and each will learn differently
• An FTO program needs to be adaptive and flexible to meet diverse needs.

Transitioning from FTO to Mentor

• Gila River EMS FTO's transition to being mentors for all new hires.
• Being an FTO goes beyond the shift; it's ongoing to meet Healthcare and EMS standards.
• FTO’s must encourage and teach through out, converse about the job, be aware of concerns, and mentor correctly.

FTO Conclusion

• An effective FTO will be an evaluator that acts professionally with a positive attitude
• To ensure success with new employees use clear communication skills, honest feedback and empathy
• Be patient while showing empathy
• With the awareness of the Dunning-Kruger Effect the learning environment will be somewhere trainees can grow
• The Gila River Emergency will have competent members when following these strategies

Course Objectives for FTOs

• Be able to name the qualities of an instructor.
• Recognize what the elements for effective learning is
• Be able to point out effective and ineffective roles of an the Instructor
• Understand the the learning process
• Recognize different types of communication

Instructor Skills

• A good instructor for FTO needs to possess desire, experience and vigilance
• Effective Instructors are adaptable, innovative and ready to learn

FTO Qualities: Desire

• An effective FTO must have the Desire to assist people and provide with trouble needed skills

FTO Qualities: Experience

• Having Experience is imperative for an FTO
• Students gain more confidence in teachers with experience, while ensuring competence when the students are taught

FTO Qualities: Vigilance

• To be vigilant, one needs to pay attention to dynamic environments
• Learning Skills and Technology is required to remain current, while remaining current with the work climate

FTO Qualities: Flexibility

• Providing training across a variety of environments when combined with backgrounds and experience

FTO Qualities: Motivation

• The key to training is bringing the excitement. A motivated trainer has the drive to teach learners

Effective Instructor Roles

• An instructor for fire should possess mentorship and leadership characteristics
• Important qualities are being a leader, teacher, coach and an evaluator

Role of an FTO as a Leader

• A leader in the classroom has visibility
• Instructive environment be turned into a debate and/or derailed
• The best leadership is leading by example and it is a vital responsibility
• Being a true leader is ensuring mistakes are opportunities to learn

Role of FTO as Mentor

• An instructor with mentorship abilities enhances the development of future instructors.
• Earning respect can be done in several ways with mentorship
• Build credibility prior to teaching
• Improving your craft is done by using all additional resources (such as courses and magazines
• Credibility is a direct result of your knowledge, so always keep improving

Role of a FTO as a Coach

• According to A Passion for Excellence, the job of the Coach is to work with others that have unique qualities, to assist them and step up to the plate
• The Coaches job is to prep the team for future challenges
• Team skills will be refined with building skills and repetition
• New techniques provide the most encouragement for the individual/team

Role of a FTO as an Evaluator

• Effectively evaluate the learning environment
• Evaluating their effectiveness, recognizes that students receive what they need and understand
• Continuously look for the methods to improve the teaching
• Able to proactively improve upon training

Role of a FTO as a Teacher

• A teachers effects are positive/negative as well as have great influence for the team
• True teacher assist others to not only see, but unlock a path to complete the goal

The Learning Environment

• Minimize distractions and maximize safety
• Being aware of the temperature to ensure the atmosphere is optimal
• A typical classroom can have multiple distractions
• Cell phones and Station alarms and texts should be silenced while training

Focus and concentration

• Rooms with limited foot traffic should be an important for training with a limited amount of foot traffic

Learning Process

• Is a mix of Cognitive, Psychomotor, and Affective Learning
• Cognitive Learning is the most easily understood type of learning and it has six levels
• Learning also occurs with physical motor skills (also six levels) as well as a persons ability of how they learn (five levels)

Cognitive Learning

• Understanding and knowing
• Applying
• Analyzing
• Evaluating
• Creating

Psychomotor Learning (Kinesthetic)

• Observation
• Imitation
• Manipulation
• Precision
• Articulation
• Naturalization

Affective Learning

• Receiving
• Responding
• Valuing
• Organization
• Articulation

Types of Communication

• Visual Communication
• Nonverbal Communication
• Written Communication
• Oral Communication
• Link to YouTube video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PMVyWFoiQM0

Good Communication

• Create a positive environment that builds relationship through Communication
• Clear Concise Language
• Listen Actively
• Provide understanding and feedback

Communication Process

• 5 elements are Sender, Message, Medium, Receiver and Feedback using https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wVSnqL48MAM

Teaching Generations

• Recognize different age groups learning styles, such as
• Generation Y, Gen Z, Generation Alpha and baby Boomers
• Each Generation has different ways they are taught
• The oldest generation is the “baby boomers” , next is generation X, followed by millennial, then is generation z
• The newest “generation Alpha” is here.

Unique Perspectives

• A baby boomer comes from the area of lecture and memorization.
• In todays world, Xers knows organizations that lack learning lessons rob from the future
• Millennial understand the world better with other standards
• Generation Z want more in depth of values aligning with content that assist society

Boomers

• A Baby Boomer likes to discuss in groups, wade throughout and follows law

Generation X

• Need stuff to entertain you, is quick, is not boring, you have ten-minute windows and will learn online

Millenniums

• Trust authority. Everything is questioned

Generations

• Believe the world can be fixed
• Move around and learn from pre-school projects
• Will talk about anything on Youtube

Generation Z

• The first that grew with access to tech
• Learn in sections that are fun
• Use of text
• Multi-model Learning comes thru images/interactive exercises

Positive traits

• The Collaborative and comfortable to use different perspectives from learning. (Gen Z)

Traits of Each

• Competitive, ethical and feedback
• A Baby boomer is always working (1946-1965)
• Gen z is very cautious
• Gen x is (Individual) (1965-1980)
• Millennium are (Flexible) (1981-1996)
• Genz wants to have a global and diverse learning style with authenticity and collaboration (1996-2012)

Build the Bridge

• Help embrace, understand, clear goals, and build trust with Generations