Disaster Preparedness Includes First Aid

First aid is a part of your emergency preparedness program, but many take first aid for granted. You buy a first aid kit and stuff it in a drawer. Somebody volunteers to be a first aid attendant, and takes a course from the Red Cross. Then everybody gets back to their usual routines until the supervisor kneels down to tie his shoelace and can’t straighten up.

By Guy Robertson

Guy Robertson is an emergency management planner and business continuity consultant in Vancouver, BC.

What Is First Aid?

It seems obvious. A larger office might designate several first aid attendants, and stash first aid kits in locations throughout the building. The Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) Committee meets every three months to discuss on-site health hazards. Everything seems under control.

What nobody knows at the time is that a woman in the accounting department has a partially blocked coronary artery. She’s only 30, a non-smoker, but both of her parents have heart disease. She collapses at her desk and slips out of sight. When her associates raise the alarm, and a first aid attendant shows up, he’s not sure what to do. He has never dealt with a heart attack before. She’s turning blue before he decides that she needs mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. He has taken the necessary training, but he’s not a good resuscitator.

Fortunately, somebody has called 911 and an ambulance arrives. The paramedics have seen the same thing many times: a heart attack victim, an unskilled first aid attendant, a possible fatality. But the victim is young and responds well to their treatment.

Meanwhile other people need first aid for headaches, bruises, strains, and other unexpected conditions. During a hot summer day, a clerk in the storeroom suffers from heat exhaustion. In the IT department, a software specialist develops a painful rash on her face and shoulders. In many cases, the first aid kit is useful; but for some situations, it’s inadequate. And it’s not the most important tool in your office’s safety plan.

Attendant Requirements

You need first aid attendants who consider the role important, and who are interested in the practical aspects of looking after the injured. This matters for minor injuries and matters more during a disaster. Attendants must look beyond the kit, and consider the best ways to handle injuries that are not necessarily covered in their brief training.

Heat exhaustion can occur at any time, but is most common at the end of summer day. Attendants should be alert for employees who suffer from fatigue, headache and nausea while showing skin changes such as coolness and pallor. Sufferers should rest in a cool place—not a refrigerator—and sip water while attendants apply cool, moist cloths or ice packs to groin, neck and armpits.

Some injuries and conditions aren’t as easy to treat. Few attendants are well prepared to deal with major problems such as severe lacerations, strokes, heart attacks, and seizures. All such emergencies require paramedics and ambulance transfer to hospital. An effective attendant will quickly realize when a problem is beyond his or her skills, and won’t waste time rifling through a first aid kit or consulting the index of a first aid manual. The answer is 911.

Even in the worst circumstances, however, an attendant can prove useful. Arriving at your office, paramedics will want to know about the sick person’s immediate condition. Is he or she conscious? Breathing? Is there a pulse? Has the bleeding stopped? An attendant’s fast and accurate reporting of signs and symptoms can save lives.

First aid attendants should also possess compassion and the ability to reassure a coworker who’s injured or sick. Imagine falling down a stairwell and breaking your leg. An attendant looks at the fracture area and tells you that he has no idea of what’s wrong, but it’s ugly. You need a calm voice to tell you to keep breathing, relax, not to worry. You’d like somebody to hold your hand. If an attendant has the right personality for the role, you’ll find yourself feeling reassured to be in his or her care.

While attendants aren’t physicians, they can be called upon to deal with health problems that that might or might not need a physician. In these cases, attendants should be cautious, and advise employees to seek medical attention if symptoms persist or even delegate a coworker to drive a sick person to a nearby clinic or emergency ward.

Lessons Learned

No office should be without a first aid kit and a trained attendant, and all attendants should be ready to deal with emergencies that require more than bandages and disinfectant. Beyond regular refresher training to keep their skills up-to-date, sometimes the most important first aid skill is identifying cases that go beyond the kit.

If you’d like to discuss first aid as part of your disaster plan, or to comment on this article, please email me at guy.