health & safety
First Responders
WOULD YOU TRUST YOUR LIFE TO A COWORKER?
If you suffered a heart attack or concus-sion
at work, would your colleagues
know how to help you?
If you work in Canada, the answer is
probably not a resounding yes.
According to a recent Nielsen Consumer
Insights survey commissioned by the
Canadian Red Cross, most Canadian em-ployees
don’t feel confident in their ability
to help with serious medical emergencies,
including:
■■ Heart attack or cardiac emergency (50
per cent)
■■ Anaphylaxis shock/severe allergic
reaction (48 per cent)
■■ Concussion (47 per cent)
■■ Stroke (42 per cent)
■■ Psychotic episode (33 per cent)
That’s because most workers don’t re-ceive
first aid training. While standards
vary among industries and provinces, the
Canadian Occupational Health and Safety
Regulations require that, in an office set-ting,
the ratio of basic first aid-certified
employees to total employee number is 1:6
to 100-plus.
Compare that to the European
model, in which everyone who has a
driver’s license must also have a first
aid certificate.
As national director of first aid pro-grams
for the Canadian Red Cross,
By Heather Hudson
EGOR-21/Shutterstock.com HRPATODAY.CA ❚ JULY/AUGUST 2016 ❚ 31
