I want to run a wee bit of a poll of our members.
With you people working around Electricity all the time, how many of you are required to regularly undertake CPR and Basic First Aid training.(How often?)
Where you are not required, do you keep yourself up to date on these techniques?
Just wondering?.

Well this may not apply to your post, but what the heck. At our industrial plant we train people in CPR and first aid anually. We train about 10 people each year. We have one electrician. (I turned him onto this site. His screen name is mjelliott.) I did not have him trained on CPR and first aid, because I thought if anyone was going to need CPR it would be him.
Scott

Our in-house Electrical Safety Program requires that electrical personnel and stand-by personnel be trained in CPR.
It is not enforced, though.

keep your Ugly's book handy.....

I work at a municipal power plant, both operations and maintenance crews are trained every other year for CPR and first aid. We also standardly train for use of SCBA (self contained breathing apparatus) and confined space entry and any other courses management deems necessary.

Unfortunately I doubt that most of private industry provides the same level of training for their work force. Thankfully, at this level if somebody raises doubts about safety they are taken seriously and the issues are addressed and resolved rather being put off.

[This message has been edited by CaOperator (edited 06-13-2003).]

I was a technical dispatcher (office job) crosstrained as warehouse manager crosstrained as entry-level installer (hanging boxes & toning cable back to the MPOP) for the phone company for a number of years (on a gov't contract - industrial/office locations, not residential) and we got our entire crew trained in Basic First Aid & CPR.

This led to one of my favorite memories. As the Vice-Pres was crossing our office turf between the conference room and the restroom, he was treated to this conversation between myself (vertically challenged at 5'2") & Victor, an (6'4") engineer who is my all-time favorite teasing target.
B: Vic, why all the bruises around your lips?
V: I don't know, I just couldn't quite get the hang of the CPR with that doll, you know - Resusi-Annie. I tried and tried and tried and I'm exhausted.
B: Well, Vittorio, don't you know you're supposed to just learn how to save her life, not develop a full-blown, long-term relationship with her?

Mr. C, Vice Pres., burst out laughing and said, "Now this is one office where I'd love to be a fly on the wall!"

Scotts: Two days after I did a requal on my Basic First Aid & CPR I was cruising along on a mountain road and encountered the sheerest layer of black ice. My truck was doing its best figure skating performance, the spin took me between two reflector posts and onto the grassy slope leading down to a ravine. I felt the resistance between tires and grass and figured I'd have a window full of EARTH any second, I started mentally running through my First Aid "ABC's", Airway, Breathing, Circulation.... BLOOD... and it'll be MY BLOOD. How will I handle seeing my OWN blood. Be calm. Don't panic... etc. My point: The lessons themselves came back loud and clear and probably helped me think about what to do - turned the wheel, got pointed perpendicular to the hill and stood on the brakes (not always the right move) until the back tire found a large partially buried smooth rock and stopped on it. Made me really think about handling medical emergencies in the heat of crisis!

Bren,
Good job for keeping your head in a time of crisis. That is the best thing you can do. I am trying to teach my daughter that. However, some people have it and some people don't. I have always found that in a time of crisis I can address the situation and find the solution. I guess I am lucky.

About your other story I had a similar experience, but it might be a little to racy for this board. DOn't want to upset Bill
Scott

... Now, we've got to keep our PG rating!


Bill

Bill,
That comment is noted.
Please, let's keep this PG!.

[This message has been edited by Trumpy (edited 06-14-2003).]

Thanks all for your comments,
Over here in NZ, I am required to sit a 6 Hour refresher course in First Aid(Emergency Rescue+ Patient Care), not as an Electrician, but as a Senior Firefighter, every 6 months.
As an Electrician, I have to do totally seperate training courses, to the NZFS,
pay, pay, pay!!.
I would still invite your comments.

[This message has been edited by Trumpy (edited 06-14-2003).]

Trumpy,
maybe someone would like to learn cpr online?

go here

Sparky,
IMHO, I think that learning CPR over the Net, sets up somewhat of a dangerous precident.
No disrepect, but, there is no real substitute for blowing into a plastic mannekin as a simple training method.
Believe me, in all the times that I have performed CPR on the Fireground or at Car Accidents, it is nothing like the training they give you in the First Aid courses.
The situation that they give you there, is that the person is lying down in an area that allows un-obstructed movement.
I have resusitated(sometimes successfully)people that are trapped in motor vehicles, before the Ambulance has arrived.
I just wish that a lot more people(citizens) would learn CPR, it's not hard to learn and look how many lives it would save!!.

True Trumpy,
perhaps i should simply say, visit the site to see how easy CPR really is, the ABC mechanics etc.... (but yes, hard to do sometimes)

conversely, the AHA here has reformatted the new circ to a video driven deal, less instructor babble these days is the jist i guess...

also there is the increasing availability of de-fibs, much per legislation, going on here.

btw~
i appluade any FF who learns, God knows we've rolled up on enough codes here with the cop or FF pointing to someone unresponsive.
i've offered training for free now for years, i just can't convince those stubborn nozzelheads here , there should, IMHO, be a law for all ERE's


[This message has been edited by sparky (edited 06-21-2003).]

Sparky,
I personally agree with what you are saying.
But, as an Emergency Worker, I am required to continue CPR and the ABC system, until such time as a Doctor(Medical Practicioner)is there to pronounce the victim as deceased.
I do not like, also the idea of de-frib units being used willy-nilly, there was talk over here of having them installed in supermarkets, as this is where a lot of our MCI's happen.
It's a stupid idea, kids will play with them

[This message has been edited by sparky (edited 06-21-2003).]

Trumpy,
it's not that the FF's do not wish to perform cpr here, they just don't wish to learn in the first place, heck i've coded thier own and they're still not moved to learn.

it is a point of frustration that i am merely venting here, please don't take it as a slam against yourself or FF's in general, it's a rural problem here.

the public?, well what can we say.... once i rolled up to a code (reported as such) to find an old lady tending to her tray of freshly baked muffins claiming 'he's in there' , resulting in the old man coded in front of the TV in the next room.

Maybe i'm a weak man, but i wanted to tell her to dial 911 and then physically close off her trachea until someone rolled up.

the holy water? the defib? yes they are issues that you and i probably should not bore this BB with.

Go here, if your not there already

Here the former will probably never be granted field ems, the latter will be poppin' outta everywhere like airbags in late model cars

btw~ MCI's in the market? news to me....

Steve(tired of wearin' that black thing across the badge cause someone else ain't got the time)aka sparky



[This message has been edited by sparky (edited 06-21-2003).]