Page 80 - OHS, June 2020

DEFIBRILLATORS & CPR
Managing Safety Training During and After the COVID-19 Pandemic
Given the current pandemic, it’s easy to postpone all but non-essential training; however, there are safe ways to train your employees while staying healthy.
BY DOM TOLLI
In the best of times, industrial workplaces can get sidelined by weather events that impact delivery and employee schedules, new regulatory require- ments that change business practices or on-the-
job accidents, injuries and illness.
Now, another unexpected influence is forcing im-
mediate changes with enormous impacts—the coro- navirus, or COVID-19, pandemic. Wary buyers pull back in unsettled economies, work environments morph due to social distancing requirements, ship- ping and transportation is disrupted and staffing is in flux daily.
Given all of these competing elements, it’s easy to take an “it-won’t-happen-here” mentality, postpone all but non-essential training, and hope for the best. However, on-the-job accidents, injuries and illness fatalities bring human tragedy to your corporate family. Furthermore, sick or injured employees can mean a loss of workforce, missed deadlines and an unreliable reputation.
According to a report by the Bureau of Labor Sta- tistics, in 2018 (the most recent year for which the data has been compiled), 37 percent of the “days away from work” cases due to nonfatal workplace injuries and illnesses resulted in a visit to a medical facility— and there were nearly 334,000 of these cases.
When it comes to fatal work injuries, there was a two percent increase from 2017 in fatalities, but the shocking difference comes in the increase among minority populations—16 percent among African Americans, the highest total since 1999, and six per- cent for Hispanic or Latinos. The fatal work injury rate for those over age 65 is still more than double that of workers of all ages in total.
By necessity, there may always be a level of risk in industrial workplaces. What can change is how companies prepare their employees for these risks. Employees who know what to do when there is an injury in the warehouse, when a colleague collapses due to cardiac arrest or when they are on the scene of a transport accident, can make the difference between life and death on the job. The challenge now becomes how to find safe ways to continue training during the COVID-19 pandemic.
A Roadmap for Training During
Challenging Times
Tim Smith, the CEO of HeartCert CPR Training in Minneapolis, gave serious consideration to shutting down training operations when stay-at-home orders first came out. Then he started getting calls and emails from people who needed a certification as a job re- quirement. “They want to be in the workforce doing a certain job, and they couldn’t do it without their cer- tification,” he said.
Smith lays out a roadmap for how his organiza- tion, and others, are enabling training during this time. Of greatest importance, follow public health guidance. Look at federal, state and local jurisdictions as well as the Centers for Disease Control and Preven- tion and the World Health Organization. Consider ways you can eliminate contact and minimize class sizes. If you typically train in groups of 12, you may have to now train in groups of six in order to follow six feet of social distancing as well as restrictions on sharing equipment. Gloves and masks are mandatory, and skills practice has been modified to comply with social distancing requirements.
Many training organizations send out screening guidelines ahead of time via email, telephone and text. The communications should always include a reminder of the potential signs of the novel corona- virus and instruct students with health concerns to reschedule. As an additional precaution, many or- ganizations are taking temperatures before students enter the facility.
Next, consider which employees need in-person training and which might be able with an online alter- native. In fact, this might be something to approach your counterparts in Human Resources and see if they have any “desk” employees who may be interest- ed in taking an online, non-certification course.
There are certification options available that are part of a blended learning curriculum. The Ameri- can Red Cross, for example, is allowing students to
76 Occupational Health & Safety | JUNE 2020
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