Scanning and Patient Identification

Question 1

Scanning

Name 3 things that may affect scanning requirements and techniques?

Answer 1

1. Weather and Surf conditions - big waves
2. The number of people on the beach and their activities
3. The shape and size of the area being supervised

Question 2

Identify the 5 key points that are important to remember when learning how to scan.

Describe what each entails.

Answer 2

1. Fixed focus - focus on specific people, look and listen for the unusual
2. Wide focus - use your peripheral vision, your side view to detect movement. Maintain focus and don’t turn your back to the area under your surveillance.
3. Avoiding fatigue - avoid staring for long periods, give your eyes a break by focusing some distant object, move your head not just your eyes.
4. Moving focus - move your eyes at a moderate pace across the area you are scanning, use moving focus for short periods only.
5. Tracking - track a moving target for a set period, track progress of people who submerge (go under water) and those that are high risk such as a lone child near the waters edge.

Question 3

What are the principles of the 5 minute scanning approach?

Answer 3

1. Change your position and posture every 5 minutes
2. Reduce eye tiredness by moving your head and eyes together
3. Rotation
4. Movement, it helps prevent getting bored
5. Count people in the area every 5 minutes.

Question 4

Name 5 scanning patterns

Answer 4

1. Connect the dots
2. Head count - count all the people in your area
3. Grouping - sort beach users into groups,
   (What activities they are doing)
4. Vertical- start from the shore then out to sea in a straight line, then move left and scan in a straight line back to shore
5. Horizontal- start from the shore and scan right to left.

Question 5

Why is it important to change your scanning strategy’s every 5 minutes?

Answer 5

So you don’t fall asleep 🥱

Question 6

Patient Identification

Why are the following potential patients more likely to be in danger at the beach?

Children
Old people
Very thin people
Migrants
Flotation users
Intoxicated(drunk) people
Inproperly dressed people

Answer 6

Children- small, could be knocked over by waves, should be with their parents

Old people- lack physical strength and stamina

Very thin people - may lack physical strength and are more likely to get cold quickly

Migrants - generally have little experience of NZ beach conditions

Flotation users - may not be a competent swimmer. Strong off shore winds can quickly push a person on a float out to sea.

Intoxicated people - Alcohol and drugs and swimming do NOT mix

Improperly dressed people - the weight of their clothes increases when they get wet making it difficult to swim. Also they are likely to have little swimming experience, otherwise they would have proper swimming gear.

Question 7

Identify 5 signs of a swimmer in trouble

Answer 7

1. Climbing the ladder
2. Hand waving
3. Hair in their eyes
4. Head underwater and trying to get up -poor swimmer
5. Facing the shore and not making any progress back to shore