Each year, thousands of workers are injured or killed due to insufficient safety processes, with the construction sector, in particular, reporting high levels of injuries and fatalities annually. There were 2.9 million nonfatal workplace injuries and illnesses reported by private industry employers in 2016, but the rate in the construction industry is much higher. 4,836 workers were killed on the job in construction in 2015, with 21.4% of all workers killed on the job being in the construction sector. Due to the nature of work, the risks contractors face are almost endless; amputations, broken bones, fractures, burns, risk of electrocution, cuts, lacerations and exposure to dangerous machinery. In order to reduce the risks, it’s important to devise a sufficient first aid program that will ensure contractor safety and limit the potential risks to your workers.
The Stats for Construction
Fatal injuries among construction and extraction occupations rose by 2 percent to 924 cases in 2015 — the highest level since 2008. This illustrates that safety is still a severe issue in construction that needs to be addressed. It’s easy in this age to discard a number as just another plain statistic, but the fact remains that each number represents a person. These numbers also emphasize the importance of implementing an effective first aid process, where your contractor safety is paramount. Within the hard-hat industries, a worker possessing first aid knowledge can be the difference between life and death.
The importance of first aid knowledge is backed up by research from St.John’s Ambulance, in the UK, which suggests that up to 150,000 people a year could be given a chance of life if more people knew first aid. The service also says that 900 people a year choke to death, 2,500 asphyxiate, and 29,000 people die from heart attacks. About 610,000 people die of heart disease in the United States every year – that’s 1 in every 4 deaths, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It is possible that many of these deaths are preventable through knowledge of first aid.
First Aid in Construction
The construction industry has one of the highest fatality and injury rates of any industry, with fatality rates for 2015 at the highest level since 2008, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).The construction fatality rate for private construction currently stands at 9.5% per 100,000 workers. Therefore, the necessity for an effective first aid program is of vital importance to ensure contractor safety. The Occupational and Safety Administration’s (OSHA) First Aid Standard, for example, requires “trained first aid providers at all workplaces of any size”. In the field of construction, OSHA require that first aid services and “provisions for medical care shall be made available by the employer for every employee.” First aid is important in all industries but it is particularly important in construction, given the risks that are inherent within it. This also means that widespread knowledge of first aid could make the most difference in this industry.
First Aid Requirements
In the UK, the Health and Safety (First Aid) Regulations 1981 require all construction sites to have the following:
- A first aid box with enough equipment to cope with the number of workers on site.
- An appointed person to take charge of first-aid arrangements.
- Information telling workers the name of the appointed person or first-aider and where to find them. A notice in the site hut is a good way of doing this.
OSHA also recommends that firms instigate an appropriate first-aid training program that can help reduce accidents and secure contractor safety.
Creating a First-Aid Program
In fact within OSHA’s helpful guide, they have laid out the best practices for designing such a program. Many of the points center around how to create effective training, such as teaching methods, tips on how to respond to a health emergency, how to assess a scene of an accident, and how to respond to both life threatening and non-life threatening emergencies
Let’s take a look.
Training
According to OSHA, first aid training should include the following principles.
- Base your contractor training on the best first-aid information available.
- Have first-aid supplies and equipment available at all times.
- Expose contract workers to “acute injury and illness settings”.
- Emphasize quick response to first-aid situations.
Preparing to Respond to a Health Emergency
According to OSHA, the contractor training program should include both instructions and discussions surrounding the following points.
- Have a list of emergency telephone numbers on hand that can be accessible to all contract workers.
- Understand how to administer first-aid care.
- Understand the importance of stress, fear, panic and how they “interfere with performance.”
- Use prevention as a way to reduce illnesses or accidents on site.
How to Assess the Scene
Your contractor training should also include information on how to act at the scene of an accident or injury. Therefore, you should consider the following.
- Assessing the scene for safety, the number of injuries, and the nature of the event.
- How to prioritize care if you have a number of fatalities or injuries.
- Assessing each victim’s “responsiveness, airway patency (blockage), breathing, circulation, and medical alert tags.”
- Performing overall checks for injuries.
How to Respond to Life-Threatening Emergencies
Your first-aid program, in particular, should include the following information according to OSHA, and of course, this may change depending on the type of site you operate from.
- Establishing responsiveness
- Establishing and maintaining an open and clear airway
- Performing CPR and rescue breathing.
- Using AED.
- Treating shock and providing first-aid for shock due to illness or injury.
Non-Life-Threatening Emergencies
When dealing with non-fatal accidents use these OSHA topics when optimizing your contractor training regarding first-aid.
Wounds
Give guidance on the assessment and first-aid for wounds including abrasions, cuts, lacerations, punctures.
Burns
Lay out what should be done to assess the “severity of a burn” and how to “recognize whether a burn is thermal, electrical, or chemical.”
Temperature Exposure
Provide information on what to do in the event of exposure to cold, including information on frostbite and hypothermia.
Provide points on what to do in the event of exposure to heat, including heat cramps, heat exhaustion, and heat stroke.
Musculoskeletal Injuries
Provide information on the following:
- Fractures, Sprains, strains, contusions and cramps.
- Head, neck, back and spinal injuries.
- Appropriate “handling of amputated body parts”.
How to Conduct Your Training?
A lot of first aid training can be done off site using an online contractor management system. Orientations can be adapted to suit each location and worker type. In terms of first-aid training, you can create site-specific orientation programs that emphasize the importance of first-aid safety training and ensure ultimate contractor safety. A blended approach to first-aid contractor training may be most effective in terms of ensuring contractor safety. This means conducting both on-site and online training to optimize information retention among learners.
