Scene Safety 101

Excerpted from EMS1.com

P.E.N.M.A.N. is a simple acronym that may be utilized for the initial size-up of an incident with an EMS, or victim, component. The letters in PENMAN stand for:

• Personal and personnel safety.

• Environmental hazards.

• Number of victims.

• Mechanism of injury or nature of illness.

• Additional resources from within the responder’s own agency.

• Need for outside agencies.

The PENMAN acronym reminds the first arriving incident commander of the primary scene priority: safety. This acronym can be recalled while responding to an emergency and continue to be utilized upon arrival. PENMAN can also be used during the event the parameters of the incident shift.

Let us address the 1st component of PENMAN: Personal and personnel safety

Personal and personnel safety

Safety is a primary concern that should be addressed long before the responder actually responds. Is he or she mentally and physically ready to address another emergency incident?

Part and parcel to this first question is, “Do we have the personal protective equipment (PPE) needed to be physically safe for this incident?”, “Will we need to use body substance isolation equipment (BSI) for this event and do we have these items immediately available?”

PPE should, in most cases, be on the person or immediately available to the responder.

The other role of “P”, and why “P” comes first, is to remind responders that the primary scene priority is safety. There is an unwritten golden rule among first responders, no matter which role they provide on-scene. That rule is: Everyone goes home.