Lifeguard Trainers: Now's the Time to Develop Your In-Service Plan

Welcome to 2023. Now is a great time to draft an in-service training plan for this summer.

For new leaders and trainers, let’s define in-service and several of its categories; lay out a timeline for a swim season that runs from Memorial Day to Labor Day; and, within the Readiness category, do a walk-through of how the rescue skills should be broken down within a week and a month.

For this article, in-service is defined as, “Training that is given to employees during the course [of their] employment.” Here are brief summaries of the in-service categories an agency should cover:

Orientation: Training that provides new staff and returning staff information on agency policies and procedures. This should include timecards, scheduling, time-off requests, mandated reporting, prevention of sexual harassment, customer service, tracking data, along with any updates from the previous year. Leadership development for seasonal staff is a subcategory.
Orientation can run from one day to one week long, depending on the agency.

Certification: Training that provides new and returning staff the opportunity to become certified or recertified in lifeguarding, enabling staff to work the upcoming season or next season. This could include certification in a swim instructor program or a lifeguard training instructor program.

Programs: Training for specific programs such as swim lessons, junior lifeguards, water exercise, and school water-safety presentations.

Rescue Readiness Training that develops lifeguards’ rescue readiness both as individual rescuers and members of a team. This covers both dry and wet skills that deal with emergencies and non-emergencies. The category also will include surveillance drills, audits and physical conditioning.

In-service Timeline
This timeline lays out recommendation of when categories and subcategories should be covered by date, category, specific subcategory:

March to early May
Orientation
Leadership development

Late May to early June
Orientation, Rescue Readiness
All staff orientation. Dry and wet skills, surveillance, and audits

Early June
Programs, Rescue Readiness
Swim lessons, junior lifeguards, water exercise. Dry and wet skills, surveillance, and audits

Late June to early July
Certification, Rescue Readiness
Lifeguarding recertification. Dry and wet skills, surveillance, and audits

Early June to September
Rescue Readiness
Dry and wet skills, surveillance and audits

ABOUT RESCUE READINESS IN-SERVICE

When looking at developing the Rescue Readiness in-service calendar, most agencies follow a four-hours-per-month framework. Some agencies do four hours in one setting per month, while others spread it out, one-hour per week. There are many ways to spread out the four hours. However, I’ve found that skill proficiency and retention require staff to have more opportunities to train on a skill, meaning they would better benefit from eight 30-minute in-services per month, than they would from one four-hour in-service per month.The topics that should be covered:

· Ventilations: Child and adult with pocket mask and BVM
· Ventilations and CPR: Infant with pocket mask and BVM
· CPR one-rescuer: Child and adult
· CPR multi-rescuer: Child and adult
· Choking: Infant, child, adult, and Control Bleeding
· Submerged victim with extrication: One rescuer, multi-rescuer
· Rescues active and passive: One rescuer, multi-rescuer
· AED: Infant, child, adult

The training progress of the topics listed should go as follows: · Train on skill individually until proficiency is achieved. Once proficiency is achieved, integrate the skill into a scenario that is goal-objective and time-based.

At the end of the story, find an example of a 30-minute lesson plan.

Each month, change up the order of the topics and the emphasis within the topic. Consider how to incorporate a make-up day for in-service and a remediation plan for staff members who are identified as underperforming in a specific skill.

In the days following the in-service, skill retention should be verified through audits performed during a specified time in the day, or simply incorporated into the work shift. Audits should be done frequently, consistently, and be well-documented to provide accurate feedback. Along with audits that test the staff’s ability to respond to emergency, leadership also should assess a lifeguard’s ability to scan the water while on surveillance duties. Like the others, scanning assessments should be done frequently and consistently, and be well-documented to provide accurate feedback.

One aspect of the in-service calendar that needs to be addressed is physical fitness. Skills are important but having the physical strength to perform the skill is mandatory. Physical fitness should be a part of every in-service training plan. Rather than have it attached to a specific in-service calendar date, physical fitness (swimming) should be done as part of a daily morning or before-shift routine before the facility opens. Everyone should prioritize getting in the water for 10 to 15 minutes and swimming, towing a victim, or treading water.

As a reminder, with all in-service training, there should be a formalized lesson plan that is followed, attendance should be tracked and successful completion should be documented, along with a clear path to participating in a make-up in-service or a remediation.

In-service training is the keystone to a successful operation and, therefore, a successful season. Hours of training should be logged, tabulated, and highlighted at the end-of-year meetings for your governing Boards or Commissions. Police and Fire Departments present on how much training is accomplished annually, along with what different types of training are completed.

It is imperative that we take in-service training seriously, both in participation and what it provides the community: A highly trained workforce of public servants who serve the community. Our staffers are first responders for our aquatics facilities and take pride in our efforts.

Good luck and keep training.

Sample Lesson Plan

Topic: Giving Ventilations (Child and Adult)
Time: 30 Minutes
Reference: ARC Lifeguarding Manual, pp. 148-150, 154-156, 162-163, 165-166
Equipment: Adult manikin with working lungs, pocket mask, BVM, gloves

1. Adult Ventilations

5:00 minutes

a. Focus on 5 effective ventilations from a lateral position using Head-tilt chin-lift with a resuscitation mask
b. Focus on 5 effective ventilations from a cephalic position using the jaw-thrust with head extension with a resuscitation mask
c. Focus on 5 effective ventilations using a BVM

2. Child Ventilations

5:00 minutes

a. Focus on 5 effective ventilations from a lateral position using Head-tilt chin-lift with a resuscitation mask
b. Focus on 5 effective ventilations from a cephalic position using the jaw-thrust with head extension with a resuscitation mask
c. Focus on 5 effective ventilations using a BVM

3. Giving Ventilations run through

8:00 minutes

a. Gloving up
b. Look, listen, and feel on an adult victim (Verbalizes there is a pulse, no breathing, and no severe bleeding)
c. Gives 5 ventilations in the lateral position with a resuscitation mask
d. Gives 5 ventilations in the cephalic position with a resuscitation mask
e. Second rescuer arrives, gloves up, assembles BVM, provides effective ventilations via BVM for 2 minutes
f. Reassess the victim (Verbalizes the victim is breathing, ventilations are weak and infrequent, assisting in ventilations would continue)
g. Repeat run through on a child victim

4. Variations (2-Person Drills)

12:00 minutes

a. 1 minute of ventilations with a resuscitation mask on an adult victim, changing out the rescuer after 2 effective ventilations, focus on uninterrupted care and maintaining an open airway during ventilations and during the switch
b. 2 minutes of ventilations with a BVM on an adult victim, changing out who seals the mask and who bags after 3 effective ventilations, focus on uninterrupted care and maintaining an open airway during ventilations and during the switch
c. Repeat both a. and b. with a child victim
d. Provide 1 minute of ventilations on an adult victim, alternating ventilations between a resuscitation mask and a BVM, focus on providing uninterrupted care and maintaining an open airway throughout the drill
e. Provide 2 minutes of ventilations on an adult victim, where the BVM mask needs to be replaced twice (using the resuscitation masks), focus on providing uninterrupted care and maintaining an open airway throughout the drill

Closing Notes

This covers skills verification forms for Giving Ventilations, Primary Assessment, and Using a BVM Resuscitator with Two Rescuers under Lesson 5