Dashpivot Article – First Aid Requirements Construction Site

First Aid Requirements Construction Site

Why are Construction Site First Aid Requirements Important?

First Aid is very important because this is the immediate care given to the workers before medical aid.

Construction sites are one of the most hazardous workplaces that subjects the workers to face various hazards that could cause accidents such as slips, trip and fall, burns and other workplace related injuries that would require immediate medical attention or first aid. It is necessary at the site but also there must be someone competent that can promptly respond and provide emergency care.

In this article, we will walk through the first aid requirements in construction sites by going through first the construction risks and injuries that requires first aid, what are the essentials for first aid and strategies to reinforce them.

Construction risks and injuries requiring first aid

What kind of injuries would require first aid? Let’s answer this first because it would give more context to understand how necessary it is to not only have first aid kits because it’s compulsory but because it’s a safety work practice. First aid can be used for minor and major or fatal injuries since it’s literally the first aid or care that you should administer to the injured worker.

For example, the work that construction workers do involves a lot of physical labor, this also poses a great risk for slip, trip and fall injury and injuries caused by improper lifting or handling of machineries that would require first aid kits and treatments to be readily available. There are known hazards in the workplace such as slippery floors, getting caught in between machineries, wrong step in the ladder that would cause major injuries such as broken bones, head and spinal injury and worse is that it could even be fatal. Thus, this makes first aid a requirement as this would help not to worsen the situation but to ease the pain.

Let’s go through the injuries that commonly happen in construction that require first aid. It’s important to note that a first aider (a worker who has been trained to provide first aid and immediate medical assistance) is around to handle the first care to check if further medical care is required. Injuries like:

1. Sprains and strains – these are unfortunately common because construction workers usually do repetitive motions, do awkward positions and heavy lifting that could injure or sprain a ligament or strain a muscle. The first aid method called “RICE” Rest, Ice, Compression, and Elevation must be done, meaning that the worker must be stopped from working, ice should be available to apply to the area of sprain, wrap it with compression bandage and elevate the affected limb to reduce swelling.

2. Cuts injury in construction – this can happen due to improper handling of tools, usually the hands will be cut or wounded because of the sharp edges on tools or machinery. The first aid treatment for this essentially involves cleaning the wound, applying pressure to stop the bleeding and covering it with a bandage until further medical aid or consult is done.

3. Burns in construction – this occurs usually in the skin of the worker due to being exposed to thermal sources like hot surfaces or welding sparks and can also be caused by contact with live wires or electric shocks. Burn injuries in construction are common and are also fatal. The first aid treatment here would depend on the cause of the burn and it’s very important that there’s a safety officer or expert around to assess the situation. Primarily, the worker must be removed from the source or in the case of electrical shock turn off the electricity. For electrical shocks also, it’s best to contact the emergency line and not touch the worker if still in contact with the electrical current. For first degree burns, first aid care treatment would be to cool the burn with running tap water for 5 to 20 minutes or until the pain subsides, remove any clothing that is not stuck to the burn and then cover the burn with sterile gauze. However, it is highly recommended that if a burn is big in diameter to immediately contact further medical attention.

4. Bruises in construction – this is usually caused by slip, trip and fall accidents. A body part can bruise when there’s direct blow in the body, when the worker trips and falls into a hard surface causing an impact and will therefore bruise that appears to be red or purplish. When this happens, first aid treatment would be to apply an icepack every two hours for the first 24 hours, elevate the area and take pain killers if needed.

What are first aid requirements in construction site?

First aid requirements in construction does not only compose of having the right supplies but also includes the right training to do first aid.

First aid supplies necessary in the construction

What’s inside your first aid kit? There were about 4 injuries in the example above that happens common in construction, and enough supplies should be part of the kit to alleviate the pain, and care for the wounds to avoid infections.

Identifying the supplies that you need will depend on where you’re at since sometimes the national standards would require you to have one full packed and complete kit and most times you would need to do first aid needs assessment first to determine what you should have. For instance, in US Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) first aid standard for construction are specified in 1910.266 App A - First-aid Kits (Mandatory) for small work sites but would require more for larger sites, while in Health and Safety Executive (HSE) in the UK first aid standard there are suggested contents of the kit but not specified because it would depend on the needs assessment but if you are buying a kit look for British Standard (BS) 8599 and in Australia, it is required to have at least one first aid kit. The first aid supplies needs assessment means understanding what the hazards in your workplace or construction site are, what is the location because the first aid kit should be easily accessible and who, how many and where is the first aider stationed.

In general, construction sites should be supplied with enough first aid kits such as disinfectants like alcohol or wound cleaning agent, roller bandages, adhesive cloth tape, eye or skin wash, sterile gauze pads, sanitizer, cold compress or cold packs, tweezer.

First aid training in construction sites

Who requires first aid training in construction sites? Everyone working in construction who is exposed to hazards need to be trained to do first aid, on the level of at least understanding how the first aid supplies should be used or where it is located and in the event that the first aider cannot immediately attend to the situation. However, legally companies are required to have a designated first aider in the workplace. First aiders are the individuals who are trained to assess the emergency, know how to do first aid, know how to do basic adult cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and other necessary precautions. First aiders are usually trained by a humanitarian organization such as Red Cross that off

How many first aiders are required? The number of first aiders in global standards would normally depend on how many construction workers are working on the site. Example, in Australia the number of trained first aiders are identified according to the level of risk in the workplace i.e. low risk workplaces—one first aider for every 50 workers, high risk workplaces—one first aider for every 25 workers, and remote high-risk workplaces—one first aider for every 10 workers. It is important that this is assessed also where you are currently working, confirm the requirement according to local regulation but at the same time, it makes so much sense to train more first aiders if the scope of the construction site has more than 50 workers working on different shifts and is more prone to be in danger depending on their specific job task.

What are necessary for your workplace to reinforce first aid training?

Now that we have more context on the necessity of first aid and what are the essentials that should be considered, here are a few more strategies to reinforce these requirements:

Construction sites must have first aid signs

You must have signs for first aid that is visible and clear and has no damage as it should easily locate the first aid equipment.

Construction sites must have first aid drills

You’re probably already doing first aid drills because it’s mandated and this is also done with fire alarm drills and that’s great–it also serves as a reinforcement to the first aid training.

Construction workers must have Toolbox Talks on First Aid

You’re probably already doing toolbox talks like slips, trip and fall, ladder safety, hazard prevention and that’s great, one that is worthy to add is: Toolbox talks on first aid, it is very effective in reinforcing first aid requirements on construction sites since it will give the supervisor or the first aider an opportunity to go over the recent incidents, to train the workers to do first aid by demonstrating the supplies hands-on and discuss potential scenarios, and refresh their knowledge on the use of first aid kits and equipment.

In this post, we’ve also provided a sample toolbox talk form on first aid to help you get started.

Preview the full example

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Better first aid and safety compliance through technology

Finally, if you think the sample form we provided does not totally cover what you wanted to include in your toolbox talk, don’t worry it’s very easy to edit using a toolbox talk software that can also handle the safety documentation records so that it can be reviewed easily. Like in the case of accidents it’s also straightforward to create incident reports in the app that you could quickly refer and access during your toolbox talk on first aid because it’s located in one app.