title: Employment Standards for Australian Urban Firefighters: Part 1: The Essential, Physically Demanding Tasks.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  This communication is the first of four describing the development of defensible firefighter-selection tests. The purpose was to identify a subset of essential, physically demanding tasks performed by contemporary urban firefighters.
  
  
  METHODS
  From existing procedural documentation and job analyses, 11 fire-station visits and interviews with 106 firefighters, and one focus-group meeting, 31 physically demanding tasks were identified and incorporated into a workforce survey. Using this tool, firefighters rated the importance, perceived difficulty, typical task durations, and annual performance frequency of each task.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Data from 989 respondents were analyzed, enabling a consolidation of these tasks into a subset of essential activities.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  These processes yielded a content-valid list of 15 essential, physically demanding tasks covering the full width of duties performed by urban firefighters from Australia's largest fire and rescue organization.
authors.affiliation: Centre for Human and Applied Physiology, School of Medicine, University of Wollongong, Wollongong, New South Wales, Australia (Dr Taylor, Mr Fullagar, Dr Sampson, Dr Groeller); and Fire & Rescue New South Wales, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia (Mr Mott).
authors.forename: Nigel A S
authors.initials: NA
authors.lastname: Taylor
authors.forename: Hugh H K
authors.initials: HH
authors.lastname: Fullagar
authors.forename: Brendan J
authors.initials: BJ
authors.lastname: Mott
authors.forename: John A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Sampson
authors.forename: Herbert
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Groeller
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001315:Australia; D003661:Decision Support Techniques; D004650:Employee Performance Appraisal / Q000379:methods / Q000592:standards*; D005260:Female; D061388:Firefighters; D017144:Focus Groups; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010560:Personnel Selection / Q000379:methods / Q000592:standards*; D010809:Physical Fitness; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D013647:Task Performance and Analysis; D014505:Urban Population; D000066477:Work Performance / Q000592:standards*; D055815:Young Adult