When a real emergency occurs, its already too late to think about how you’ll respond and whether or not your emergency action plan (EAP) is up to snuff. An effective EAP is critical to your ability to safely control and respond to emergency situations in, on, and off the water.
As a busy dive professional, you have to keep track of students and their individual needs, organize training logistics, evaluate water conditions, and keep track of an endless list of safety related minutiae. Adding the burden of responding to an emergency is task loading, but with an entire class of students in the water you need to make sure that your emergency response plan is second nature. Knowing the dive site and having the appropriate equipment to deal with an emergency are necessary for keeping your students safe, but when was the last time you took a moment to review how you’d manage a real emergency?
Connaître le plan dans son sommeil
Having a plan on paper is great, but you need to know your plan by heart, and be ready to put it into action under pressure at a moment’s notice. Use DAN’s guidelines for creating an EAP to create and customize your plans and practice them until implementation is automatic. By the time you identify the need to respond to an emergency, you shouldn’t have to think about what to do — your EAP will dictate your responses, and you’ll be able to evaluate the situation further as you begin to respond.
Gérer la scène
Once an emergency occurs and you’ve begun to respond, it’s vital to your safety, and the safety of the injured diver, that you effectively manage the scene. Bystanders, boat or car traffic, or well-meaning but ill-prepared divers attempting to interfere with your response can put you and your diver in harm’s way. Controlling the scene requires firm but respectful commands, and keeping a cool head yourself can do a lot to control the attitude of a concerned crowd. Make sure that any crowd or vehicle traffic nearby is managed so you have a sufficient perimeter in which to provide care and prevent further harm to anyone involved in the incident. Use direct orders to get specific bystanders to contact emergency services, block traffic or help you move a patient. Talking to a crowd can be confusing in the best of situations — task specific people with clear duties to get effective responses.
Communication et logistique
Une communication efficace entre toutes les parties impliquées dans une situation d'urgence peut réduire le stress et améliorer les résultats pour le patient. L'amélioration de la communication avec le personnel médical d'urgence peut accroître l'efficacité et la rapidité de son intervention et contribuer à transmettre des informations précieuses sur le patient au médecin traitant. Que vous fournissiez des radios portatives à votre personnel, que vous emportiez un téléphone satellite lors d'une expédition lointaine ou que vous demandiez à un locuteur natif de traduire les informations au personnel médical pour éviter les barrières linguistiques, veillez à ce que votre communication soit courte et qu'elle aille à l'essentiel aussi rapidement et clairement que possible.
Si vous souhaitez consulter DAN Safety Services sur la création de plans d'action d'urgence personnalisés pour vos opérations de plongée, envoyez un e-mail à . Voir Ressources en matière de sécurité opérationnelle pour plus d'informations sur les plans d'action d'urgence, et en savoir plus sur les Adhésion professionnelle au DAN.