Australasian Mine Safety is the leading voice for all key decision makers within Mining company's and major contractors. Delivering the latest industry news as it breaks.
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Daniel coad and clinton jury red cross college 41 The Australasian Mine Safety Journal Summer 2011/12 staffing skills set, training, records and available equipment both rescue and medical and the positioning of these people and supplies. What to prioritise? This is the point where equipment and supplies are purchased and training through an accredited and reputable RTO (Registered Training Organisation) is sourced. While this may seem obvious and simple, the reality is that the bill for this will quite likely be significant and there may be a need to budget. If the budget is unavailable, the acquisition may need to be revised or spread over a period of time. In the latter case the required equipment and supplies will need to be prioritised. This is achieved by first selecting the equipment and supplies that MUST be acquired, and secondly which of the equipment or supplies will do the most good for the most people. Another frequently forgotten area of funding may be the requirement to renovate or modify an existing room or area that is to become the First Aid Room or First Aid Station. Let's do it! It's now time to implement the plan and see if it works. Essentially this is a matter of installing First Aid Kits, stocking shelves, testing equipment and using simulated patients in different areas with differing injuries to see how, and if, it all works. Anything that doesn't work as intended will need to be modified and the simulated incident repeated. This process is repeated until the entire plan has been tested and proven to work in numerous situations. You may choose to engage an RTO that specialises in first aid to assist with this drill process. First Aid Drills take first aid theory out of the classroom and apply that knowledge in a range of safe scenarios in work environments as a preparation strategy for actual incidents requiring a first aid response – much like a fire drill. This needs to be thorough to ensure that where practicable, all aspects of the plan are tested. (The local ambulance service could be invited to participate in an exercise so they are familiar with the internal practices and locations of the First Aid Room and access points.) Once the plan has been finalised all persons in the workplace, including customers and visitors, must be made aware of how to access the First Aid Service. The final part of the plan should be processes to evaluate the effectiveness of the First Aid Service to ensure that the plan is in fact meeting its aim – to ensure a safe workplace. Common methods of evaluating the effectiveness of the plan are to: • Interview random patients to gauge their perception of their first aid experience, gain feedback, and debrief first aiders after incidents; • Repeat the first step; • Analyse potential risks regularly to ensure nothing in the workplace has changed; • Conduct frequent meetings with the first aid personnel to 'brain storm' improvements to the First Aid Service; • Seek outside consultancy via First Aid Audits; • Stagger refresher training so at least one first aider is retrained yearly to ensure the pool of knowledge is up to date; • Conduct regular simulated exercises covering a range of locations and injuries; and, • Keep an accident/incident/near miss database. All the best equipment and well-trained personnel in the world can be rendered useless by an ineffective plan. The key to a safe workplace and an efficient First Aid Service is: • A thorough and exhaustive analysis of the workplace; • A well thought out delivery plan; • Adequate and appropriate first aid assets; and, • Tested and well-rehearsed First Aid Service. Prevention is far preferable to casualty management. We must be prepared for the worse and by planning, evaluating, updating our knowledge base, and through training. By continually improving our process and procedures we will all endeavour to ensure the wellbeing of our employees. Red Cross College, a Registered Training Organisation, is the training and education arm of Australian Red Cross. Red Cross is the world's largest provider of first aid training in the world. All bookings and enquiries can be directed to 1300 367 428 or visit redcross.edu.au for more information.