In any workplace, it’s a legal requirement to have adequate first aid procedures in place and equipment readily available to handle any unexpected accidents or emergencies that may occur. Hundreds of employees are injured in workplace accidents every year, many could have been easily prevented by first aid in the workplace or a few prevention methods. Even if your workplace doesn’t seem like a dangerous place, accidents can happen at any time, anywhere.
The Health and Safety (First Aid) Regulation 1981 states that all workplaces must have:
- A stocked first aid kit
- An appointed first aider/s with adequate first aid training
- Information and resources for employees highlighting first-aid arrangements.
- Occasional Health and Safety checks of the site and must be reported (these are usually done annually)
The first few minutes after an accident are most crucial for saving a life or avoiding lasting impairment, so keeping first aid training and procedures up-to-date is important in order to deal with accidents quickly and efficiently. People underestimate the importance of first aid in the work place.
What should you have in your first aid kit?
The contents of your first aid kit depending on the type of job being carried out, the environment and its potential hazards, of which can be determined using a health and safety assessment.
However, for a low-hazard workplace it’s recommended that first-aid kit should at least include:
- Triangular bandages
- Safety pins
- Disposable gloves (Sterile)
- Medium and large sterile, unmedicated wound dressings
- Individually wrapped sterile plasters (Must be of different sizes)
- Sterile eye patches
- A leaflet giving basic first aid advice
- Tweezers
- Digital Thermometer
- Pain Killers (Paracetamol or aspirin but aspiring not to be given to under 16s)
- Alcohol-free cleansing wipes
- Sticky Tape
- Antiseptic Cream
- Scissors
- Crêpe rolled bandages
How your business will benefit from first aid training:
First aid training will teach candidates life-saving techniques and how to provide appropriate care, even though investing in first aid training may seem costly, it can bring a range of benefits to your business, including:
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It can save lives
The main benefit of first aid safety training for your employees is that it will teach employees life-saving techniques, so they can act confidently and immediately in an emergency potentially saving a life.
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Save your business money
Even though enrolling your employees on first aid training courses comes with a cost, having training and skilled staff can help prevent accidents and provide immediate treatment to those injured. If treatment is not received immediately it could result in a further injury resulting in longer employee absence or even life-changing injuries or fatalities, which could also result in legal action against your business.
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Improve employee morale
Employees who care about the happiness and wellbeing of their employees will encourage stronger positive relationships, resulting in higher morale amongst employees and creating a more enthusiastic work environment. These can help increase productivity and produce more positive results from employees.
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Can build team relationships
Train your team all at once and it can help build stronger relationships between your employees. It’s a great way for your employees to get to know each other and work with people they may not have done before. A team that is made of stronger relationships and can work effectively together will have overall higher productivity levels.
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Improve company reputation
A company that has very few accidents and a strong first aid procedure in place will be trusted more by potential employees and customers. A serious lack of health and safety can make it to the news and subsequently destroy a company’s good reputation. A safe, positive reputation will allow you the opportunity to hire the best of the trade, as employees would rather work for a company that cares about their health and wellbeing whilst at work.
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It can reduce recovery time
If someone, unfortunately, has been injured at work they will recover much quicker if the action to injury is rapid. So ultimately, they will get back into work much faster.
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Employees can stay safe even outside of work if they have protocols in the workplace.
This means not many accidents would be major outside the workplace meaning the flow of business is not disturbed.
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First aid kits will be used correctly.
If employees can properly use first aid kits and know how to maintain them, less money will have to be spent on them and can be focused on better things.
However, despite all these points to the benefits of first aid, we must never, prioritise money, over a lifetime. The life given to us is something valuable and can’t be matched at price, so look out for each other in the workplace and never make economic success a priority over life.
