When developing your in-service training calendar, the previous year’s statistics should influence where you place your focus.
What does this mean?
Look back into your records. If you’ve had to perform rescues at the mouth of a water slide where children enter the water and become disoriented, then your lifeguard team should train to perform rescues at that location. If your records show rescues at the point where the floor transitions from shallow to deep water in the pool, then the rescue team should train there. If there is a reoccurence of bee stings or slips on the deck, then train on how to mitigate and treat those specific injuries.
A good in-service takes data from past rescues and injuries and trains staff for those specific incidents: If we know this type of incident is going to occur at this specific location, during this activity or time of day, then we train how to prevent it, how to perform the necessary rescue to resolve it and how to treat any potential injuries that could occur from it.
Once you’ve created an in-service that addresses the incidents and injuries that more commonly occur at your facility, expand activities and drills in anticipation of variations that could manifest.
If your drill trains lifeguard staff to make a solo rescue of a victim at the dividing rope between shallow and deep water, then provide a variation to the drill by deploying two rescuers to the victim. If your drill trains the presentation of an active victim on the surface, then add a variation where the victim is active but submerges. If your drill focuses on treating a bee sting, then have the patient begin to present difficulty breathing, so the lifeguard must expand their scope of care.
Here are a couple examples showing potential variations to two scenarios — rescue at the dividing rope and treatment for bee stings.
Variations: Rescue at the dividing rope
Let’s revew potential variations for a drill where you have a child victim who needs to be rescued at the dividing rope between the shallow and deep water of the pool and draft a 30-minute in-service.
Here are variations:
- Active victim goes passive
- Active victim submerges and is still active
- Passive victim submerges
- Multiple victims (both active; one active and one passive; both passive)
- Two lifeguards are deployed to rescue the victim simultaneously
- Two lifeguards are deployed to rescue the victim, but there is a 5-second delay in the second lifeguard being deployed
- The lifeguard deploys from a different point other than the tower
Mistakes to look for
As the trainer, your critical eye is needed so that lifeguards don’t make mistakes that could delay or compromise care for the victim or compromise their own safety. Here are some errors you might see:
- Lifeguard has poor management of rescue tube (entry, rescue tube leash, etc.)
- Poor placement on rescue tube that allows the victim’s airway to remain open
- Lifeguard allows themselves to be grabbed by the victim
- Lifeguards don’t know how to work together during a rescue
- One or both lifeguards fail to rush to the victim during the rescue
Variations: Bee sting treatment
Let’s review potential variations for a drill where you have a child victim suffering from a bee sting and draft a 30-minute in-service.
- Multiple bee stings
- Victim requests assistance with their prescribed Epi Pen
- Victim Epi Pen assisted, begins to have difficulty breathing, EMS is activated
- Victim Epi Pen assisted, begins to have difficulty breathing, EMS activation, emergency oxygen is administered
- Victim begins to have difficulty breathing, EMS activation, emergency oxygen is administered (NO Epi Pen available)
Mistakes to look out for
As the trainer, your critical eye is needed so lifeguards don’t make mistakes that could delay or compromise care for the victim or compromise their own safety. Here are some errors you might see:
- Lifeguard fails to get consent before providing care
- Lifeguard neglects activating EMS or doesn’t know how to communicate with EMS
- Lifeguard doesn’t know how to assist with the Epi Pen
- Lifeguards don’t know how to administer emergency oxygen
- Lifeguards are unfamiliar with treating for shock
As the trainer, you have the power to prioritize in-service topics. Make sure they are relevant to your team. Is there a need to practice additional skills that don’t have a high frequency, such as deep-water spinal immobilization? Absolutely, but don’t let them dominate the season.
In the end, you should devise a 30-minute in-service that is compact and effective. Plan on using the best setting at your facility to run this in-service, establish clear objectives, and transition quickly between drills. Safety should be the priority for your lifeguards and victims.
Good luck and keep training.
