Saying that knowledge can save lives might sound a tad dramatic, but in this case, it’s absolutely true.
Knowing how to administer CPR, or properly carry out the Heimlich maneuver can be the difference between life and death for someone, and the difference between you being able to make a meaningful difference or being powerless to help.
Online courses for emergency and disaster training in the workplace are ideal ways to learn vital skills so that you or a colleague knows how to act in case of an emergency. eLearning continues to be an effective tool for in work training, and its use for emergency response is no different.
In this article, we’ll discuss the benefits of being trained for emergencies so that you’re aware of the huge help that it can be.
Safeguarding the Workplace
The first and most obvious benefit of emergency and disaster training is that it will make your workplace so much safer. Even a relatively easy technique to train, like CPR, can make a huge difference to the safety of the place you work. With over 600,000 people suffering a cardiac arrest each year, the assumption that you’re unlikely to ever use your training isn’t exactly accurate.
In the case of cardiac arrest, every minute counts. As this study states, “Each minute without treatment decreases the likelihood of survival without disability. Without treatment within 10 minutes, the survival rate is almost zero.”
Considering that in a city like New York ambulance response time hovers around the nine minute 20 seconds mark, your training could quite literally decide who lives and who dies.
Response plans to fires, earthquakes and even terrorist attacks are needed to secure the safety of each person working.
Unfortunately, workplaces are often environments that are full of stress, which can potentially increase the chances of an emergency like a cardiac arrest occurring. Make your workplace safer by knowing what to do.
Safety for Those You Love
Although eLearning courses for emergency and disaster response will most likely to be given through your employer, the value knowledge that you gain does not stop at the place you work. The understanding of red flags for illnesses or knowing how to deal with a fire are lessons that can be taken anywhere in life.
This extends to your family and friends; all the people you love. Would you know how to treat burns or smoke inhalation if there was a fire at home? Would you know how to compress wounds if a family member injured themselves?
The knowledge you gain from your work life is transferable to your private life and with as serious a subject as the health of those you love at stake, this is a benefit worth its weight in gold.
Become Even More Employable
Online courses in emergency and disaster response training don’t only offer the very direct benefits of knowing how to act in when facing a disaster. The skills that learners acquire along the way – communication, teamwork, and leadership – are all tools that are vital to a successful workplace. Individuals who can demonstrate these skills are always in demand.
In this sense, undertaking an online course in emergency and disaster response training is, as the old saying goes, like killing two birds with one stone. Not only are learners endowed with the know-how to tackle emergency situations head on, but they also dramatically improve the “soft skills” that employers are considering as more important than ever. Not a bad day’s work!
Improve Company Culture
If safety in the workplace isn’t the number one concern of each and every employer then they have a problem. The company culture that doesn’t put the health and wellbeing of employees first and foremost is not one that is likely to succeed. Employees have a right to work in a safe place, and working with individuals who are trained in emergency and disaster response can offer that.
The safety of a workplace isn’t only a legal requirement, but it can also make a huge difference to company culture as a whole. Acknowledging the importance of every individual working at an organization promotes the company understanding of their workers, in turn allowing organizations to become more dynamic and better versed in creating a happy workforce. Happy employees work better and harder, and a happy company is more attractive to potential employees and clients.
Training a workforce in emergency and disaster response is a win-win for everybody.
The Role of Online Learning
It is the nature of online learning that makes it such a useful medium to teach emergency and disaster response through.
A problem that organizations often have with this type of training is that it can require entire teams to stop working for days to facilitate learning. Unless your organization has the resources to cope with an entire day’s inaction, you’re unlikely to offer this service. eLearning can step in here and fill that void.
Not only is eLearning extremely effective as a tool of education, it’s also completely mobile and far cheaper than inviting experts to the office. With usernames and passwords, each employee in a company can complete their training – from their home, at their desk, or even on the bus.
Because eLearning is done online it is vastly more affordable to medium and small size businesses that would otherwise be put off by the huge bills that often come with this type of training. eLearning makes this training – that will help to safeguard the health of an entire workforce – a viable option.
When a something as important as the health of employees, colleagues, and friends is on the line, online courses for emergency and disaster response simply make sense.
