Monday, March 30, 2009
VGBA for Crypto? It's Up to You
The Crypto issue may become the next knee jerk reaction federal law. Crypto is clearly a life-threatening issue for aquatic facilities and like entrapment it is not new. All that is needed now is an individual with great political influence to help enact another federal law. This could easily take place because the majority of pool operators, facility owners and local and state health inspectors largely ignore the topics that create situations that lead to a crypto outbreak. Unless facilities want a law dictating sanitation procedures nationally, owners and operators of aquatic facilities better step up and prevent mass outbreaks now.
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
Looking for Leaders
Aquatic and Recreation Leaders (Directors, Supervisors, Operation managers…whatever the name) must take an active role as a leader. Leaders are seen, not hidden. All levels of management must be engaged with all levels of employees in their organization and have some appearance that they care what goes on in their facilities.
Too often lifeguards fail to see or have any contact with management personnel. Some staff only see senior facility staff when something goes critically wrong. All aquatic facilities / organizations have a common goal that everyone can agree upon; “No one will die in our facility”. Leaders frequently drive the point home to lifeguards that they must “watch their water / supervise patrons”. Leaders often forget a key component in prevention, they must also supervise their staff, including the lifeguards.
How often do we find multi-million dollar attractions / facilities where the only staff in plain view are 15 to 19 year old lifeguards? Would you let these staff “watch” your kids?, Drive your car? Think about it. When things go bad, stuff rolls up hill. “How could such a thing (submersion) have happened?”. Failure to supervise comes to my mind. There was a failure in vigilance from the lifeguard, but management / leadership failed too.
Some organizations have adversarial relationships between staff (unions) and management. Obviously this will contribute greatly to the failure of the organization. Hire the best, expect the best, and work together for your sake and the organizations success. It is unacceptable to have adversarial attitudes between management and staff when peoples lives are at risk.
It is wonderful when you have highly competent and responsible staff, but even the best guards make mistakes. As we all know, mistakes made around the water can be life or death. As such leaders of organizations with aquatic facilities must make their attitudes about safety known to staff regularly. After all, that 19 year old may hold the future of your job and your organization in their hands.
Too often lifeguards fail to see or have any contact with management personnel. Some staff only see senior facility staff when something goes critically wrong. All aquatic facilities / organizations have a common goal that everyone can agree upon; “No one will die in our facility”. Leaders frequently drive the point home to lifeguards that they must “watch their water / supervise patrons”. Leaders often forget a key component in prevention, they must also supervise their staff, including the lifeguards.
How often do we find multi-million dollar attractions / facilities where the only staff in plain view are 15 to 19 year old lifeguards? Would you let these staff “watch” your kids?, Drive your car? Think about it. When things go bad, stuff rolls up hill. “How could such a thing (submersion) have happened?”. Failure to supervise comes to my mind. There was a failure in vigilance from the lifeguard, but management / leadership failed too.
Some organizations have adversarial relationships between staff (unions) and management. Obviously this will contribute greatly to the failure of the organization. Hire the best, expect the best, and work together for your sake and the organizations success. It is unacceptable to have adversarial attitudes between management and staff when peoples lives are at risk.
It is wonderful when you have highly competent and responsible staff, but even the best guards make mistakes. As we all know, mistakes made around the water can be life or death. As such leaders of organizations with aquatic facilities must make their attitudes about safety known to staff regularly. After all, that 19 year old may hold the future of your job and your organization in their hands.
Friday, January 9, 2009
Save Time With Video Training
Aquatic Director’s, How much time is spent training new staff?
Consider how much time you and your staff spend conducting facility on the job training (OJT) for new hires. If you have more than a dozen staff, it can be over-whelming. This is especially true during high turn over seasons, like the start and end of summer. In fact those of you with large staff numbers may have portions of the OJT speech committed to memory.
There is a better way.
Videotape your OJT and or standard operating procedures (SOP's) for each facility so that the new hires and current staff can view it and spend the time truly understanding it’s meaning before doing a walk through. Your staff could view it at their leisure and then as a group walk though to ask questions or demonstrate knowledge for you and your leadership staff.
Video based OJT / SOP’s provide consistent delivery of all working expectations. For leaders in the department, it also frees up their time. It will take a little extra time to make sure that your video is 100 percent correct, but in the long run you will have saved hours of work and insure that nothing was missed in the OJT / SOP training session.
Consider how much time you and your staff spend conducting facility on the job training (OJT) for new hires. If you have more than a dozen staff, it can be over-whelming. This is especially true during high turn over seasons, like the start and end of summer. In fact those of you with large staff numbers may have portions of the OJT speech committed to memory.
There is a better way.
Videotape your OJT and or standard operating procedures (SOP's) for each facility so that the new hires and current staff can view it and spend the time truly understanding it’s meaning before doing a walk through. Your staff could view it at their leisure and then as a group walk though to ask questions or demonstrate knowledge for you and your leadership staff.
Video based OJT / SOP’s provide consistent delivery of all working expectations. For leaders in the department, it also frees up their time. It will take a little extra time to make sure that your video is 100 percent correct, but in the long run you will have saved hours of work and insure that nothing was missed in the OJT / SOP training session.
Tuesday, November 25, 2008
Sanitation of pool decks, walkways and locker areas is as important as water quality.
Most comprehensive aquatic management / operation texts specifically identify the importance of “cleaning and disinfecting” pool decks, walkways and locker areas. The concept of disinfecting is simple, yet often over-looked. The most recognized method is to use and 5 percent bleach and water solution in the following areas:
DAILY: Locker area decks, benches, sinks, toilets, changing tables, shower decks and all walkways.
WEEKLY: All pool deck areas, benches, and diving board surfaces.
Frequently pool decks need daily disinfection procedures due to load.
Some may say “Who cares if we sanitize monthly versus daily? besides, daily sanitation costs too much.”
Well, who uses your facility? The young?, the old?, people with compromised immune systems? Do families use your facility? Have you ever watched infants and toddlers? They crawl on the deck / floor and put whatever they find in their mouths including their hands and toes. Would you be comfortable licking the pool deck?, Shower deck? That’s what you do when pool water gets into your mouth, the stuff on the decks is introduced to the pool water by swimmers walking to the pool.
Having raised these points, is it any wonder why we have more and more RWI outbreaks? People enter our facilities dragging in contaminates, fail to shower before swimming, cleaning is reduced because it is too costly….Go figure that RWI transmission is up.
Thursday, October 9, 2008
Pay Attention to Fanny Packs
I have noticed that at many aquatic facilities the majority of lifeguards follow the accepted procedure of wearing the rescue tube while on duty. However what is not as common is wearing their fanny pack / rescue kit while on duty. This is a critical issue for employers as well as for the guards and patrons safety. The major training agencies all depict guards wearing the fanny pack in photos and or video for their lifeguard training programs…..thus it is a standard of care issue. Aquatic professionals recognize that if the lifeguard fails to have this kit available immediately, care is delayed and the guard / patron well-being is at risk. The kit generally supports barrier devices (PPE’s) like gloves and pocket mask at a minimum. The fanny pack should be worn by lifeguards when ever they are on duty, after all, the need for these items is unannounced.
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