Re: MB skills and Eagle BoR - Double Feature
Jeff Menaker (jxm181@PSU.EDU)
Mon, 29 Jan 1996 18:41:30 -0500
On Mon, 29 Jan 1996, Chris Haggerty, Sierra Vista, Arizona wrote:
> From: "J. Hugh Sullivan" <sullivan@NETAM.NET>
>
> >>The Lifesaving Merit Badge is another that deals with life or death
> >>issues. However, unlike the Wilderness Survival MB, the Scout has to
> >>PROVE he has the ability to safe a life with a minimum level of skill.
>
> >watched the rest of the tests. Passing a rigid final was SOP; is that still
> >true at summer camps? I hold rigid testing in high regard.
>
> This type of testing is most DEFINATELY OUT! (forgive the caps, but I am
> shouting). It could earn you a lawsuit. OSHA has found that more people
> were injured in training than ever needed the type of training you
> describe. Anyone doing lifeguarding should have proper equipment and
> training. If you have not been trained in the last year, you are obsolete!
> (At least as far as the Red Cross is concerned. Any lifeguarding card
> which does not have R95 on it is no longer valid.)
I have been certified by ARC for 4 years and am now recerting under the
new course. I was never told that my card (which expires may 96) was
suddenly invalid because they came out with new practices.
I am not far into the new course, but already i dislike it. It makes
some very basic but poor assumptions, it assumes that you will always
have a rescue tube with you. This is understandable if you are employed
as a guard or guarding is your only duty, as in a public pool or
waterfront, but having worked as guard for many years, I almost never
used a rescue tube. We always station guards with reach poles around the
deck and preach order of rescues. I have not seen anything in the new
Lifeguarding Today book about reach poles, ring buoys, or simple reaching
assists.... everything is geared toward the rescue tube.
Knowing how to deal with an aquatic emergency even with you don't have
equipment is essential.
I believe part of lifesaving merit badge is to prepare scouts for
unforseen situations, to help them to prevent emergencies (safe swim
defense, safety afloat), and to prepare them for BSA Lifeguard.
Changing the BSA lifeguard course to solely focus on rescue tubes, would
be useless. BSA lifeguard is supposed to be a resource for units,
someone who knows how to handle emergencies. Are you going to carry a
rescue tube with you on a backpacking trip for that splash in the river?
I have used the skills taught through lifesaving merit badge, and the old
red cross course.
>
> What was found is that the above does not describe a realistc senario.
> In real situations this almost never happens. A rational person trying to
> act irrational, it does not work.
it may not be accurate, but it can be close... doing reach pole training
on a person flailing about certainly can emulate a real emergency if done
properly, so can anything else.
>
> The Red Cross has droped contact training (releases and holds, cross chest
> carry) because a trained lifeguard should never need to use these in a work
> environment. Although Lifesaving merit badge was updated in 1993, I expect
key: in a work environment... why train a lifeguard to only be able to
work with certain tools. that makes that person completely useless when
taken away from the pool, or if the equipment fails or becomes
inaccessible for whatever reason.
Rather than delete all the other stuff, rescue tubes should have become
an addition. If the problem was of too many accidents, the cause was
more likely inappropriate teaching or supervision rather than choice of
materials. Making everything safer for the student doesn't necessarily
make it better.
First aid merit badge:
do we teach scouts skills that will only work if they have access to
latex gloves, ladder splints, roll gauze, etc....
no,
lifesaving should be the same way... introduce how to work with equipment
which may or may not be available, but also cover how to deal with an
emergency when you have no equipment.
> another update before 1997 becuase of the ditates made by OSHA.
can you provide a authenticated list of these dictates?
>
-jeff
ARC - LGT
ARC - WSI
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Jeff Menaker | "Time Passes.... | ____
119 Holmes Hall | will You?" | | /\ __
University Park, Pa. 16802 | <lifeguard@psu.edu> | __|__/--\/ \
(814) 862 - 2490 |http://cac.psu.edu/~jxm181/| / |\ |
-------------------------- | ------------------------- | ---------\__/
I M P R O V I S E -=- A D A P T -=- O V E R C O M E
Terry Howerton Sakima Group, Inc. SCOUTER Magazine Kansas City | 
