Legal Considerations in Fire and Emergency Services for the Executive Fire Officer – FIRE 640

Course Description

This course will focus on understanding the legal issues that are intertwined with the fire service. The executive fire officer candidate will research pivotal questions confronting today’s fire service, including legal liabilities, sovereign immunity, overtime laws, collective bargaining, OSHA compliance, worker’s compensation, physical abilities testing, medical examinations, drug testing, discrimination, and sexual harassment.

Rationale

The future of fire service organizations is dependent on the legal considerations that impact day to day operations. To become a well-qualified leader within the fire services, one must not only understand the legal issues associated with the fire service responsibilities but must also understand the basic principles of implementation and how to apply those principles in an ethical manner throughout one’s career.

Course Assignment

After reading the Course Syllabus and Student Expectations, the student will complete the related checklist found in the Course Overview.

Discussions are collaborative learning experiences. Therefore, the student is required to provide a thread in response to the provided prompt for each discussion. Each thread must be at least 500 words and demonstrate course-related knowledge. In addition to the thread, the student is required to reply to at least 2 other classmates’ threads. Each reply must be at least 250 words. All threads and replies must reflect critical thought. Relate the course content to real-world applications with biblical perspectives and cite a minimum of 1 source, per response, in current APA format.

Fire and Emergency Services Administration Paper Assignment

This narrative paper provides the student with the opportunity to share his/her philosophy of legal issues in the fire and emergency service communities. Based on the student's worldview and personal philosophy, the student will develop a framework that describes his/her philosophy of leadership in fire and emergency services.  All papers must be completed through the lens of a Biblical Worldview where students will incorporate appropriate biblical passages and/or resources. The paper must be completed in current APA formatting and consist of at least 4 – 6 pages (excluding all title, abstract and reference pages). For this paper outside reference are not required for this assignment, however if outside scholarly sources to support evaluation are used, they must be properly cited.

The purpose of this project is to discuss the roles and responsibilities of leadership within the fire services. The Fire Administrator has many roles which impact Administrative Staff, the organization, and the public. The student will create a PowerPoint presentation assessing these many roles and reflect on his/her personal skills and talents for fire and emergency services management.  The student will discuss how personal skills/talents could be used to impact fire and emergency services while including a professional development plan that includes areas he/she will strive to develop in his/her fire administrative management skills. All presentations must be completed through the lens of a Biblical Worldview where students will incorporate appropriate biblical passages and/or resources. The presentation must be titled "The Fire Administrator", completed in current APA format, and consist of 15 slides (excluding all title and reference slides). In addition to the course text, the Bible and a minimum of 1 peer-reviewed reference published within the last 5 years must be cited. 

Please use bullet points in the body of the slides and use the speaker’s notes section liberally to provide supporting thoughts and information.

The student will write a 5-page paper (excluding the title page and reference page) that focuses on Nehemiah’s managerial skills while leading during a period of significant change. The paper must include at least 2-4 peer-reviewed references that are less than 5 years old in addition to the Bible. A title page and reference page must also be submitted, but they do not count toward the length requirement. The paper must be in current APA format.

Each module quiz will cover the Learn for the assigned Module: Week. Each exam will be open-book/open-notes, contain 10 multiple-choice/True and False questions, and have a 30 minute time limit.

Quiz: Final Comprehensive Examination