**Disclaimer** Before I begin, I want to give a warning that this post will have a more serious tone than the previous posts and that it may be difficult to read for some people. I will discuss emergency preparedness, CPR, and signs of drowning. Also, please be aware that I am not a medical professional in any way and that I am speaking only from personal experience as well as from what I have read online. While I encourage you to read this post, I also encourage you to seek more information from trained professionals if you intend to work with children.
Camp is just around the corner for me, and I am extremely excited! It means that I’ll be back in my favorite place doing what I love most—working with children! Even though I love it so much, I know that every day there are inherent risks that linger over every activity, and there is always a possibility that these risks could become realities. For that reason, it is extremely important to know how to react in emergency situations as well as the signs of emergency situations. As I mentioned in my first post, a camp counselor’s number one priority is keeping the campers safe, and their safety is still important in emergency situations. In the case of emergency, adhering to the following procedures will ensure that the emergency is taken care of without any greater risks to the counselor or the other campers. First, it is most important for the counselor to remain calm and take a few breaths as well as remind their self that they can handle the situation. Freaking out can cause the other campers to panic, which may eventually put them in danger as well, and will cause the counselor to lose focus, preventing them from reacting accordingly. Next, looking at the situation as a whole will help the counselor determine what the most serious issue is and what needs to be handled immediately as opposed to what can wait. Sometimes the most evident issue is not always the most serious one, so taking a second to evaluate the situation is crucial. Then, if there are any immediate injuries that need to be attended to that cannot wait for a medical professional, it is best to do so before calling for help. These include life-threatening issues like excessive bleeding or shock. If the injured person does not seem to be responding or is unconscious, CPR may be needed. (I will go into basic CPR instructions to be used on pre-pubescent children below.) After that, once any life-threatening injuries are attended to, even if the situation seems under control, it is extremely important to call or alert emergency services, such as the fire department, police, or hospital, so that they can evaluate any potentially unnoticed injuries. Finally, after the emergency is taken care of, the next crucial step is to attend to any of the campers not directly involved in the emergency, reminding them that everything will be okay and comforting them if necessary. As previously mentioned, some emergencies may require the administration of CPR, which is used when someone’s heart stops beating or when they are not breathing properly. It works by helping move blood to a person’s brain in order to prevent brain damage. (I am not personally certified in CPR, but I do know the basic steps. This is an example where it would be helpful to seek further information beyond my knowledge.) The three main steps to remember for CPR are C-A-B: compression, airway, breathing, but the most important step for someone who is not CPR-certified, like myself, is compression, which is often shown to work on its own. After checking to see if CPR is actually needed, follow the steps below, as outlined by WebMD:
Another emergency situation that there are many misconceptions about is drowning. Many people believe that the signs of drowning include flailing arms and screaming for help, but in reality, people who are drowning cannot complete these tasks, and those who can are not actually drowning but are under aquatic distress, which is still concerning, but not immediately life-threatening. According to Dr. Francesco A. Pia in an article in the Coast Guard’s On Scene magazine, in order to prevent suffocation in water, people resort to the Instinctive Drowning Response, which is a essentially silent and appears calm. He characterizes the response by the inability to call out for help because the respiratory system is occupied by attempted breathing. Additionally, the mouth is hardly above the water for very long, permitting only short, if any, breathing and no verbal communication. Furthermore, there is no waving for help because the arms are instinctively extended to attempt to keep the body afloat, preventing any voluntary body movement. People tend to remain upright in the water and cannot keep themselves afloat for more than 20-60 seconds. Additonally, according to an article titled “Drowning Doesn’t Look Like Drowning,” other more noticeable signs of drowning include the following:
If camp counselors are aware of the misconceptions of drowning as well as the overall signs of drowning, then they are more likely to be able to notice if a camper may be drowning and can take action or call for help if necessary. As with all of my posts, here is a brief overview of what I covered in this post:
Thanks for reading! Logan *P.S. This is likely my last post for the summer until school starts back up in the fall. I will be taking very detailed notes of my experiences throughout the summer and will have plenty to post about when I’m back at UMD!* **P.P.S. Since this article used a lot of information from online, below is a list of my sources.**
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Logan DechterUniversity of Maryland student by fall and spring, camp counselor by summer. Archives
February 2018
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