The class will use Excel™ for hands-on instruction and includes lecture, demonstration, and guided discussion.

Among the things you will learn: 

• An introduction to statistics for Fire and EMS (without the difficult math).
• Templates and formulas to get you up to speed quickly with your own department data.
• Visual representations (tables and graphs) - which to use and when.
• Understanding the differences between large and small data sets and the special considerations with small data.
• Best practices in Fire and EMS data quality.
• How to set realistic performance objectives.
• How to identify outliers in data.
• Standards of cover: all the quantitative tools you'll need to work with accreditation peer teams.
• How to calculate effective response force and unit concentrations.
• Making percentiles, quantiles and cumulative frequencies simple.
• How to calculate measures that involve arrival times on scene.
• Unit and system reliability.
• A comprehensive yet palatable rundown of practices for use of statistics in fire service performance measurements, including compliance with NFPA 1710 and 1221: what works and what doesn't.