The business of safety

Mary Dawes First Aid For You

Work Health and Safety regulations stipulate that every single business must ensure they provide first aid equipment and appoint an adequate number of workers who are trained to give first aid.

First Aid is something many of us only think about in times of emergency, realistically in our day-to-day lives thinking of first aid at work, isn’t a thought many of us would have. However, according to Work Health and Safety regulations every single business must ensure they provide first aid equipment and appoint an adequate number of workers who are trained to give first aid.

While learning and knowing first aid is one thing, having the correct safe work procedures to prevent accidents at work is equally important.

The back was the location on the body most often injured, accounting for 22% of all serious claims in 2012-13, according to Safe Work Australia. Other common locations were the hand, fingers & thumb – 13%, shoulder – 10% and knee – 9%.*

Part of our Business First Aid initiative is ensuring that businesses understand that first-aid requirements vary across the workplace spectrum.

We’re approaching businesses and highlighting the type of hazards at the workplace which will depend upon size and location of the business, number of employees and visitors/customers at the workplace and the critical industry factors.

It may not come as a surprise that employees working as labourers had the highest incidence rate of serious claims of all occupations in 2012-13, according to Safe Work Australia.* But office workers shouldn’t be too complacent, as muscular stress while lifting or handling objects caused 33% of serious claims in that period, while falls, trips and slips caused 22% of serious claims.

As a core basic, it is best practice for staff to understand CPR – Cardio Pulmonary Resuscitation – and, in order to meet WHS requirements, an appointed First Aid Officer must undertake at a minimum ‘Provide First Aid HLTAID003’. This course is very practical and can be completed easily in one day.

Some of the subjects covered in the course include CPR, emergency management of blood loss, burns, envenomation – dealing with snake venom/bites – soft tissue injuries, asthma and allergy awareness, and choking management.

It’s also important to have a number of staff educated in first aid skills because, as often can be the case for smaller businesses, the one person who is certificated in first aid can be away on leave or out of the office when there’s an emergency, hence why it’s critical for more than one staffer to know these skills.

Mary Dawes, Director, First Aid For You

*http://www.safeworkaustralia.gov.au/sites/SWA/about/Publications/Documents/897/australian-workerscompensation-statistics-2012-13.pdf.