The paramedic has operational roles and responsibilities in establishing command under the incident command system (ICS) in order to ensure patient, public, and personnel safety. Upon completion of this chapter and related course assignments, students will be able to explain the purpose of medical incident command in the ICS and describe the major components of the National Incident Management System (NIMS). They will be able to describe how START and JumpSTART triage methods are performed and discuss triage principles, resource management, and the need for retriage. Students will also be able to discuss the specific conditions that define a situation as a mass casualty incident (MCI), including the role and purpose of critical incident stress management (CISM) in an MCI.
