so now we're to be EMT (ranty)

[HotelMinion]

Well Crap has found yet another way to poo poo on us clerks. Now we are to be trained in putting out fires and CPR. Mandatory. I don't mind being shown how to use a fire extinguisher, but why can't it be a video??? Instead they have us outside n 30 degree rainy weather, with a wind chill of 5, shivering like electrocuted. The fire kept be put out by the weather, and had to do it until it lasted long enough for me to put it out with the extinguisher, meanwhile my fingers are too numb with cold. When I complained, the trainer said, "Oh well! Maybe that's the conditions you'll find yourself in!" Well I don't give a s---, I'm calling the professionals.
Then we had to take a CPR class in case some SC collapses, I guess. Again, outside. Again, I'm calling the professionals instead of doing mouth to mouth! I know about mouthguards and such, but I think there was a case where some victims sued their saviors! No way am I dealing with that BS! 911 all. The. Way!
Does anyone else have a silly MANDATORY training story? It may make me feel better. *grumble* Well, venting helped anyway...

[eltf177]

Don't get me started! Every year we have mandatory fire extinguisher training, but at least they do it in good weather. Got news for you - fire over there? I'm heading in the OTHER DIRECTION as fast as I can. That's what professional fire fighters get paid for; give me that pay and I'll fight it, otherwise drop dead...

We get all sorts of first aid videos too. My advise to my co-workers - injured? Make sure your will is valid and insurance paid up, I am NOT doing CPR. I've got a cell phone and I will call 911.

Has manglement thought about the possible legal ramifications of these poor decisions?

[wolfie]

Got news for you - fire over there? I'm heading in the OTHER DIRECTION as fast as I can. That's what professional fire fighters get paid for; give me that pay AND THE PROTECTIVE EQUIPMENT and I'll fight it, otherwise drop dead...

Fixed that for you.

[KuariKaydrith]

Where I live you can't be sued if you do CPR or provide first aid to a victim. It's all covered by the Good Samaritan Law. So I've got all that fancy training and even trained in using an AED machine and the different types of fire extinguishers. It's all a part of being a security guard with the company I work for anyway.

I remember in one of my training classes a few years ago there was an absolute newbie and when asked why the person in the video we were watching would check his hands every time he would pat the victim to check for wounds, she answered "To make sure his manicure isn't damaged!" The rest of us died laughing while the instructor was trying to stay calm. He ended up excusing himself from the room but we could still hear him from the hallway.

Oh! And in the most recent round of first aid training I had we were going over how to stabilize a patient with sucking chest wounds (yes, it's a very intense course we have to take), and the instructor pointed at one of the students and told them that they had the perfect thing to use for stabilizing a patient with said sucking chest wound. The student stared at the instructor and said, "What? Candy?" What the instructor was actually referring to was the plastic bag the candy was in. We all damn near pissed ourselves laughing over that.

[dalesys]

I am going to agree and disagree.

The trainer is full of the mil-spec sheep-hole-eth of "Good Training! Ooo-Rah!", which is valid if, and only if, the trainees have weeks of repetition, it is a primary task, and they need to do it instantly in rain, snow, typhoon, tornado or twenty feet up a whale's hind end.

For ordinary people, getting yearly/quarterly familiarization training, anything that distracts from the primary focus, such as said weather, degrades the training to a box-checking exercise.

Low other stress hands-on live "fire" experience is the best. Practice with a Rescu-Annie great! Hammer up the crap-of-rats chain how idiotic it is to expect useful learning while freezing.

I disagree in that I believe each of these skills is a very good thing to have. The few minutes of CPR you do before the EMT's arrive could be the critical difference and Murphy guarantees that it won't be a flaming SC that dies, but the customer that resurrects your faith in humanity. You do have your Blessed little yellow screwdriver, don't you?

A spritz of extinguisher into the smoldering planter box could easily be the difference between a whiff of smoke and the hotel shut down for months.

TL/DR: You are right to torch the idiotic training methods.

[Becks]

At my job, if we think we can take care of it, then by all means, we can take care of it.

Otherwise, let the professionals handle it.

Either way, call the professionals.

[vikingchyk]

Does anyone else have a silly MANDATORY training story? It may make me feel better. *grumble* Well, venting helped anyway...

I have 11 (or 12... or 13... ) mandatory training classes to do this year. I would kill to replace two of them with Fire Extinguisher 101, and CPR

[boringscreenname]

At my security job we had to do first aid/cpr/aed training once every 2 years. The class was usually 4 hours long. Then we had to do a refresher course every 2 years which ws 2-3 hours long. One year the company lost my record of completing the training and I never received my certification card so I had to re-do the class a year early because if their screw up. We were also trained in how to use various fire extinguishers, and we also had to terrorism threat awareness training which was reading a huge binder then filling out a big packet full of questions.

At one site I worked at we had to Crisis Prevention Institute training because the site was a hospital and we had a psych ward so we needed to know how to verbally de-escalate situations and defend ourselves if we got attacked without hurting ourselves or the patients. It was an 8 hour class, then we had to do a 4 hour refresher class every year.

[Sulhythal]

I actually had a similar, but opposite complaint about emergency training back when I worked at the Hated Place.

You see, every two, or three months, they would talk about what to do and where to go in this or that weather/fire/other based emergency, and about how we should help the customers around us to get out/get to safety as well.

What I was always, always, ALWAYS miffed at is there were NO DRILLS.

People panic in emergencies, it's easy to forget what was said a month ago in the moment. We should have had fire drills, Tornado drills.

We could do it in the morning, before the store opened, and in the evening after we were closed(though, I could see people complain about that...wanting to get home and all that) Still, halfheartedly spouting the same information every few months with no training on DOING IT amidst flashing lights, and noise is almost worthless.

[HotelMinion]

Yeah someone canceled their meeting so we were allowed to use the meeting room instead so it wasn't that bad. We watched a video and practiced on dummies. I think I got a sick from my CW because we had to use the same dummy though. Well at least they weren't too cheap to provide dummies otherwise we'd have to use each other!!! I wouldn't have been surprised if they did, knowing them. :\ I just can't imagine doing mouth to mouth on a stranger though. Even with the guard it's weird. Maybe I'm a germaphobe. Even doing it on a dummy was weird. IDK why.

[csquared]

I agree with what dalesys said. That instructor is worthless.

Please remember, when someone goes into cardiac arrest, they only have 1-2 minutes. Call emergency and administer CPR. You don't have to do mouth to mouth.

"And no kissn'. You only kiss your missus on the lips." - Vinnie Jones.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ILxjxfB4zNk

Remember, what goes around, comes around.

[dalesys]

Jennie Breeden (The Devil's Panties) had the classiest EMT train... (SFW)

[csquared]

We're doomed.

[Aria]

I really think that being trained to use the fire extinguisher is a good idea. However, why would they do it with a real fire? Fire extinguishers are supposed to be point and click, aren't they? "This is how you activate it. Point it like this and pull." I'm pretty sure they're not complicated at all.

CPR is also a very good skill to have and I'm glad you got to do it inside.

[KuariKaydrith]

At my security job we had to do first aid/cpr/aed training once every 2 years. The class was usually 4 hours long. Then we had to do a refresher course every 2 years which ws 2-3 hours long. One year the company lost my record of completing the training and I never received my certification card so I had to re-do the class a year early because if their screw up. We were also trained in how to use various fire extinguishers, and we also had to terrorism threat awareness training which was reading a huge binder then filling out a big packet full of questions.

At one site I worked at we had to Crisis Prevention Institute training because the site was a hospital and we had a psych ward so we needed to know how to verbally de-escalate situations and defend ourselves if we got attacked without hurting ourselves or the patients. It was an 8 hour class, then we had to do a 4 hour refresher class every year.

I'm lucky in that I only need to do the Standard First Aid/CPR/AED training every three years. It's also a 14 hour course for us each time. I think because we go three years between certifications we don't have the option of refresher courses. Our trainer is a former EMT/ambulance attendant so he was more than thorough, but I feel really confident in my abilities in the event of an emergency. He encouraged me to further my training to become a full-fledged EMT and learn to intubate/extubate and run IVs, and has me down on the list for his survival first aid course that he plans on running this summer. It's a way more than needed for standard security work, but it would be handy to have.

I've also had terrorism threat awareness training due to the type of building I work in. If they want to cut communications for most of the province we'd be the first building taken down. No crisis intervention training is required by the security company I work for but I'm planning on paying out of pocket for it anyways. Especially if we get the hospital contract for the province again because it will come in very handy.

I've got copies of all the certificates for myself and my guards on-site here so if my employer loses everything (yet again...it's happened more than once in the past six months) I can just fire it off to them. I'll do the same when it's time to renew - one bonus is that we all renew our first aid/CPR/AED at the same time because I'd arranged for our recent round of training through a friend of mine who trains for the Canadian Red Cross. Makes it easier anyway.