Precast Inc. - May/June 2008 - (Page 20) S A F E T Y & H E A LT H First Aid Training Standards in North America It isn’t simple, but it is a good idea. By Randy DeVaul F irst aid training for employees can provide a number of benefits while producing safer employees and a safer work environment. Under regulatory agencies, such as the Occupational Safety & Health Administration (OSHA), the Mine Safety & Health Administration, and Canada’s Workplace Safety and Insurance Board, having employees who can respond quickly to a workplace emergency is not only important, it is required by law. Additional benefits include the trained employee’s ability to better protect and respond to family or work-related emergencies and the potential lowering of insurance costs to the employer. First aid training is an important and reasonably inexpensive way to increase the safety awareness of employees while ensuring prompt emergency care in the event of an injury or sudden illness in the workplace. The training increases the employee’s safety awareness by illustrating the types of injury that can occur at work and make the employee more likely to recognize and correct identified hazards. This leads to a reduction in the likelihood of injuries and teaches employees to make better choices. While taking a relatively safe person and enhancing his or her safety awareness through first aid training, it is important to repeat the training and find ways to keep it fresh. This can be done by making the first aid trainer a member of the safety team or committee, participating in observations of work practices, conducting safety training sessions for other employees and periodically conducting first aid response drills. High-quality presentation materials and an effective trainer are critical factors in employee learning and retention of first aid techniques. From a performance perspective, a rapid response by trained MAY/JUNE 2008 | PRECAST INC. While the benefits of first aid training of employees are obvious, it is also important to understand the compliance standards of the government. personnel to life-threatening injuries increases the survival rate of the injured person. Response to non-life-threatening injuries (lacerations, avulsions, fractures, etc.) by trained personnel also directly improves the healing and recovery process for the injured employee. This allows their return to work to be quicker and treatment time and costs to be reduced. Therefore, a proper and rapid response can also provide savings in workers’ compensation claims, treatment costs and production loss. With first aid-trained employees in place, many insurance companies provide additional discounts in workers’ compensation and risk costs. That savings alone often is enough to offset the cost of the training. Check with your insurance provider to discuss or negotiate a discount. During the 1980s and 1990s, the fear of contracting lifethreatening diseases through first aid contact was a significant factor. Over time, that fear factor has decreased with additional knowledge of how such diseases actually spread and the universal precautions that are now readily accepted to protect both the responder and the injured person. Principally, there are two kinds of people undertaking first aid training – those who truly have an interest in safety and their fellow co-workers who want to help, and those who are “assigned” the response role as part of their job duties without a real personal interest in the subject. The latter group is hard to keep motivated; the former is already motivated. While the benefits of first aid training of employees are obvious, it is also important to understand the compliance standards of the government, whether in the United States or Canada. For example, OSHA and its sister agency, the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA), each require a rapid first aid response. British Columbia has its Health Emergency Act and 20
For optimal viewing of this digital publication, please enable JavaScript and then refresh the page. If you would like to try to load the digital publication without using Flash Player detection, please click here.