Saturday, September 11, 2010

First aid readiness

It is rare for me to visit my local shopping centre around midday during the week. But this week I did just that. In the space of just a couple of hours, I saw two teams of paramedics assisting elderly shoppers who were injured or had collapsed. The shopping centre staff handled each situation calmly, they knew their procedures and even had screens at the ready to shield an elderly man who'd collapsed on the main concourse from view.

It made me wonder how ready most public library staff might be to handle a similar situation. Are procedures in place? Have staff been trained to handle common incidents? In a crisis how will they react?

As our community ages and the numbers of older people using libraries increases accordingly we need to start thinking about our first aid readiness.

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