Page 52 - Occupational Health & Safety, May 2018

EMERGENCY RESPONSE
Hands-on, Scenario-based Training for Emergency Responders and Rescuers
The key to mitigating human error during a real emergency is the right kind of realistic training.
BY DEBORAH LOVELL
Your emergency response training curricu- lum may be up to date and relevant, but is it enough when a real emergency happens? Will your responders or rescuers recall the information learned when under pressure? And even though your responders earned their training certifi- cates, can they physically and emotionally perform if they have never experienced a real-life emergency?
Unlike other job fields, the role of an emergency re- sponder or rescuer is to save lives in real-life situations in a matter of seconds. Acquiring the knowledge, skills, and abilities responders need to perform these critical life-saving tasks cannot be taught by textbook—they are learned through realistic and repetitive hands-on, scenario-based practice. Unfortunately, the most com- mon omission in private sector training programs is hands-on, scenario-based training.
Public fire and police first responders spend hours and hours, even days, in emergency response training. To test their skills and abilities, many, if not most, fire and police departments utilize props and structures specifically built for their hands-on, scenario-based training. This contained and safe training environ- ment provides a re-enactment of real emergencies that may occur and challenges these responders to act decisively and overcome obstacles not learned in a textbook.
What about industrial emergency responders and rescuers? These first responders also need to know how to apply their skills proficiency in an emergency scenario, how to think through the scenario while keeping everyone safe, and how to identify hazards and challenges associated with and during an incident.
To ensure your first responders and rescuers are fit and able to act in response to an emergency specific to your facility, employers will need to add hands-on, scenario-based training to training program. But un- like our public emergency services sector, industrial businesses do not have props or structures built for hands-on training. So what are the options?
1. Your hands-on training should encompass all skills necessary for all possible facility emergencies. One option would be to create a realistic environ- ment at your facility specific to the types of skill sets your responders and rescuers may need for all pos- sible facility emergencies, such as high-angle rope rescue, confined space rescue, atmospheric rescue,
48 Occupational Health & Safety | MAY 2018
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