New first aid and emergency drills from IMCA
June 23, 2009
A new document produced by the International Marine Contractors Association (IMCA) is designed to assist with the ongoing competence of first aid personnel onboard vessels.
‘First Aid and Other Emergency Drills’ (IMCA C 013), the new publication, is not a guidance document, instead it sets out a range of first aid and other emergency drills which members can use onboard their vessels as part of on-the-job training for all personnel – not just appointed first aiders.
“The drills cover a number of different scenarios encompassing a range of activities on a vessel such as general scenarios; saturation diving; air driving; engine rooms; machinery spaces; galley; helideck; ROV spreads; pipelay; and elevated work areas,” explained Jane Bugler, Technical Director of IMCA.
“Each drill has been written so that it can evolve based on specific work sites and personnel. Drill participants are provided with updated information on a real-time basis, and the document sets out their expected reactions.”
“The drills are designed to provide the reader with a number of pieces of information. Each of them is educational in its own right on the challenges of accidents and medical issues in an offshore environment. These may prompt the reader to look at developing or updating company procedures.”
“It is envisaged that members may wish to add new scenarios to this document or develop existing ones to suit their own company circumstances, in order to share best practice or to improve the practical aspects of the document.”
“Anyone wishing to contribute scenarios to the document should forward them to me for consideration when producing future revisions of the document.”
John Greensmyth, who from September 2002 until February 2009 was Chairman of IMCA’s Training, Certification & Personnel Competence Core Committee (now known as the Competence & Training Core Committee) has written a foreword to the new document in which he explained: “A well trained workforce is the backbone of a successful business; procedures, working routines and standard operation processes all ensure that a company’s work is undertaken in a correct manner, but these all require a competent workforce to perform to the required standard.”
“In the armed forces there is a huge emphasis on training which has underlined the saying ‘the more you sweat in peacetime the less you’ll bleed in wartime’. We can apply this to our industry by altering a few words to ‘the more you sweat in preparations the less you’ll bleed in operations’.”
IMCA members can download the new publication via the members-only website with additional printed copies available at £10 for members and £20 for non-members (plus 20% for delivery outside Europe). Further information is available at www.imca-int.com and from publications@imca-int.com or from IMCA at 5 Lower Belgrave Street, London SW1W 0NR, UK. Tel: +44 (0)20 7824 5520; Fax: +44(0)20 7824 5521.
