Scene and Incident Management

When you have an emergency or an accident that's actually happened, you need to make sure that the whole scene is kept safe and you have managed the whole thing correctly. It may be where you are actually working, you might find there are special rules and regulations regarding the management of an accident. There may well be already a documented emergency action plan of what to do in an emergency. The important thing you need to do is go and ask or if you are just participating in martial arts, ask the centre if there are any special rules or regulations that you need to apply or what happens in an emergency.

Now when you arrive, you are going to be given some kind of safety briefing. In that safety briefing, they will tell you in different ways, formally or informally, where the emergency exits are, maybe what the fire alarms sound like, and also where the first aid kits or who the appointed people are within that business to deal with first aid emergencies. Now, this briefing will be done by your instructor or maybe by the centre owner or you'll also be referred maybe to a notice board, so you can actually see any other specific information there. When you come across an emergency, the first thing we need to do is make sure that we keep the scene safe. You don't want to just turn up and cause an accident ourselves, get involved in the accident, or have any other problems.

Once you know there is an accident and general sort of advice, we stop, think, and act. To start with, you just want to stop. At this point, it just stops you rushing into the accident and then potentially getting hurt. The think stage is where we are just looking at what we are dealing with, but don't just look at one angle. Maybe just walk up around the patient to get a different perspective. Have a look around to look what dangers there are, what precautions you need to take. At this point also, you can put on your gloves. Putting on your gloves that will protect you from any possible blood-borne pathogens.

We are also thinking at this stage of what we are actually going to be doing. The whole time this is going on, you can be talking to the patient. We need to look. There's nothing worse than turning up with an emergency scene, finding someone unconscious on the floor, touching them, but then realizing this patient has been electrocuted. They may still be alive, so when you touch them, electricity is going to pass through your body and injure you as well. Always when you turn up on an accident scene, no matter where it is, look for all possible dangers within this thinking stage.

The final part is act. This is where you actually do it. This is where you actually approach the patient. And just because you've approached the patient, you need to keep on thinking about all potential dangers. It's a good idea to go back now when you are next in your martial arts centre, have a look at what possible dangers there are. You can go to extremes on this. There will be things hanging from the ceiling, they'll be trip hazards, they'll be dangers, slip hazards. There may be special rules about not eating or drinking in certain areas. This can because you can put water on the floor or cause other problems.

It may be there are weights around. Any weights or fitness equipment, this can cause injury as well, so take a little bit of time to have a look around and know your surroundings. If you know your surroundings when an accident then does occur, you've got a much better chance of identifying what possible dangers there are and then hopefully reducing these dangers or reducing the risk on you and also on the patient.