A Love Note to Trainers
- Brendhan T. Sears
- Sep 2
- 7 min read
By: Brendhan T. Sears, RPL, CMCP
Training new dispatchers in a 9-1-1 center is tough work. Not only are you responsible for them, but for every single person they come into contact with. You can't take ANYTHING for granted. Your trainee may do great handling a specific task a few times, but then struggle with it next time. And it could be for any number of reasons: they're overwhelmed by the caller, a new situation, or just by the sheer amount of new learning they're faced with that day - and every day. And that's to be expected - training is obviously very tough for them, too! We're practically force-feeding them new information on things they've never done before. It's overwhelming! So, until we fully cut that cord and allow them to make their own decisions, it requires us as trainers to be "on" the entire time.
Nothing gets overlooked: every call, every teletype message sent and received, every entry made, every single word spoken. It all gets scrutinized, checked, double-checked, and evaluated. Even how they're interacting with others in the room needs to be considered. And you do this day in and day out for weeks, sometimes months. It can be exhausting - particularly if your trainee is having a rough go at it. You have to pull out all the stops, thinking creatively on new approaches that will help your trainee succeed.
All of this is just your typical, garden variety training experience. Then there's training new dispatchers in a room that's critically understaffed.
Holy f**k.
Wait, no. That font isn't nearly big enough.
Holy f**k.
Much better.
I can't emphasize that enough. It's literal chaos. At this point, everyone in the room takes on a role in their training because they have to work harder than they likely ever have so that you and your trainee can focus for two seconds. They're picking up the slack in ways they've never had to before.
Case in point: our room operates with Center and Backup positions. In a nutshell, Center is dedicated to the radios and are the sole point of contact for the folks on the road. Any requests that our deputies have are notated by Center, but handled by Backup. This means Backup is checking subjects for warrants, making phone calls to request back up, start rescue, or call for a tow truck. The other positions in the room are dedicated call-takers who also monitor our side radio bands.
When we are fully staffed, we have between 6 - 7 dispatchers on our shift - afternoons. These days, between a staffing shortage of 30% coupled with benefit time being taken (sick time, vacation, etc.), we frequently find ourselves so short that we have to force someone to stay late from the previous shift or early from the next. And there's no planning for your next force in advance. One person calling in forces your name out of the hat earlier.
Our minimum staffing is 4, meaning the number of call-takers is cut in half. It takes only two phone calls for the room to busy. Never mind the 20 calls reporting the same accident. In this situation, allowing a trainer to focus essentially removes another functioning body from the fold. But the emergencies don't stop. You think the public gives a shit about your staffing issue? HA! The additional work, and the stress, are picked up by everyone else in the room.
God bless 'em.
And let's be honest - training in this environment should really be considered an Olympic Sport... or at least a circus act with all the juggling we do... and the occasional clown :) Starting a task only to be interrupted by seven new and very different tasks of varying difficulty, but continuing right where you left off 90 minutes later without skipping a beat takes the kind of brainpower any Marvel superhero would be jealous of.
They say "it takes a village," and they ain't lyin'! The work they do is truly invaluable because otherwise, you simply don't have time to invest in your trainees. And if you can't, you may scare them away - someone you've never needed more than you do in that very moment. Then you're back to square one. If you don't have a list of qualified candidates at your disposal, you're looking at another year to find and train their replacement. FOR ONE PERSON. In a room where capacity is 27, my department needs 8 - and I know some of you need even more.
We need to be 1,000% invested in the success of our new TC's. I've been going out of my way to explain our current situation to them. Reminding them that the reason they are here is to alleviate this atypical burden and that there will be instant relief the same day they are released into the wild.
I remind them that it's okay to make mistakes. They're doing something they've never done before, so it's expected. We're not going to let them drown, and we're not going to let anyone get hurt. I encourage them to show themselves some grace and to not set the bar unreasonably or unrealistically high. That the cynical grunts and moans of the people around them isn't normal, either. We're doing our best, we're trying our best, but we're burnt out after YEARS of being understaffed, so it doesn't take much to be triggered.
I gifted my last two trainees with a copy of the book, Dispatcher Stress: 50 Lessons on Beating the Burnout, by Adam Timm and Joe Serio. I want to provide them with the practical tools early on to both maintain and NORMALIZE taking care of their mental health. I also gifted a copy to all my coworkers who didn't already have one. For the leadership, I gifted a book called The Gift of Struggle by Bobby Herrera, which challenges us to find the lessons in our own struggles that allows us to become better leaders. I share this not to brag, but as a reminder to all of you dispatchers out there (and leaders alike - both in action and in title!) to take of YOU, too. You're not doing yourself or anyone else any favors pouring from an empty cup.
To all you trainers out there, there will be a lot of influence on your trainees in that room - both good and bad - but YOUR influence will likely have the biggest impact because you spend the most time with them. How you represent your agency, the room, and yourself can make the biggest difference in your trainee's success. Guide with compassion. Meet your trainee where they are in terms of how they learn best. We need to bend and flex to our trainee's learning style and modify our approach to it when necessary. Connect with them on their level to build a mutual understanding of what's expected of them while also setting them up for success by maximizing their learning potential.
Remember not to expect YOU from your trainee. As a center, we recognize our colleagues have their strong suits and we rely on each other's expertise every single day. Your trainee will be no different. Most of them have set a bar for themselves that exceeds what's required at the time, so allow for them to make mistakes without adding to the guilt they likely already feel. Remind them to focus on the value of the lessons learned - not the mistakes themselves. That's some good life advice, too!
Lastly, don't forget to communicate with the next trainer in line. They should take some time in the days before the transition to read over DOR's. Ask questions about learning styles. It's important they know and understand your trainee's strengths and areas of improvement. Make yourself available to them for meetings or phones calls. Emails are great too, but there is so much context missed there. For trainees, everything is a mountain - including advancing to a new phase or a new trainer. Let's do what we can to make the process as seamless as possible.
You all do AMAZING work as it is, but you really go above and beyond when your agencies are spread so thin. Thank you for your selfless dedication to keeping the ship afloat. It doesn't matter how many new hires admin cranks out - YOU prepare them to be the next chaos coordinators and the room grows largely in part to YOUR efforts. Please don't take for granted or underestimate the importance, influence, and power you have in your center.
And for those who need to hear it: make sure you're hiring people before others are leaving. Interview enough people that you can establish a list of potential TC's, because it's not enough that the training itself is tough - just getting your foot in the door is a beast in and of itself. Advertise on social media. Better yet, establish a regular social media presence from dispatch so that your followers become invested, curious, and most importantly, interested in what we do. And for Christ's sake, pay your people a decent wage while also recognizing them as first responders!! It takes nothing away from anyone else, but it DOES take away from the communities you serve if the reason you're understaffed is because your dispatchers are underpaid and unrecognized.
About the author: Brendhan T. Sears, RPL, CMCP, is the Founder and Owner of Humanizing the Headset, LLC, and has been dispatching in the Chicagoland area since 2007. He is active in his department as a trainer, a member of the Peer Support Team, is CIT certified, and serves as a union rep.
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