What do you see?
SCANNING
SCANNING Lifeguards can practice/train to improve their physical, technical and theoretical ability as a lifeguard. How do lifeguards train their eyes to see danger and react appropriately? How does full time aquatic staff train staff to improve scanning and visual memory?
SCANNING Lifeguards need to be able to; Scan a designated zone (10 to 30 seconds Lifesaving Society standard) Accurately Identify potential situations and eliminate before they can take place and/or rectify if already taking place Process what they see and react appropriately
SCANNING Issues: Divided into two categories; Environmental (glare, water agitation, heat, air quality) Human (mechanics of eye, ability of brain to process information, accurate recognition, victim simulation)
Scanning Environmental Issues: Glare, agitation of water, heat, humidity, chemical balance (turbidity) all play a factor in what a lifeguard is able to see in front of them and more importantly on the bottom of the pool.
Heat and Humidity Scanning Temperature (hot and cold) greatly influence physical ability of lifeguard to do job Increased heat (amplified by humidity) causes perspiration and dehydration of person while on duty Dehydration not only a drain on body but also brain causing mental fatigue and vision impairment
Heat and Humidity Scanning Incumbent upon lifeguard to ensure that they stay hydrated throughout shift. What level of responsibility does employer have to monitoring of health status of staff during heat waves? Heat/Humidity procedure? Provide H20? Mandate regular breaks/relief from heat? Supply uniform to protect from heat and humidity?
Scanning Air Quality Humidity, poor chemical balance and ventilation can lead to a poor air quality Ability to breath, irritation of eyes direct result of poor air quality Decreased level of vigilance due to inability to breath and irritation of eyes
Scanning Water agitation and Turbidity Poor chemical levels cause turbidity (cloudiness) of water impairing vision bottom of pool and water. Increased activity of participants in water cause agitation of water distorting objects on bottom of pool and water.
Scanning Disappearing Dummies Dr. Tom Griffiths Aquatic Research Group
Scanning Victim Simulation Accuracy and realism make difference in real life situations Nothing beats real life.video is a close second Bondi Beach Rescue Home videos Frank Pia Epilepsy Society Videos
Staff Training Scanning Have staff be as real as can be Have guest presenter demonstrate what dead weight is like to lift and/or rescue Drowning Non-Swimmer Cross legs and keep arms tucked in tight while moving up and down (Paint brush goes up and down Karate Kid)
The Human Eye Scanning Great deal of information is out there on basic mechanics of the eye, vision standard and the processing of information. Gap in relating this information to the performance of a lifeguard. A few concepts to explore include Perceptual Blindness and/or Chance Blindness.
How do your eyes do it? Movie from Discovery Channel
Perceptual Blindness
Perceptual Blindness Scanning Attending to one task and miss obvious things in front of them like; Speaking with a patron while scanning the pool Setting up for the next swim Vacuuming the pool while people are swimming Cognitively primed to look for something A flailing drowning non-swimmer A person in agony clutching their chest
Scanning Perceptual Blindness How many S s S s were on the wall behind in the movie? How many elevators were there in the movie? How many people were wearing white shoes? How many people were wearing black shoes?
Let s s Try It Again
The Monkey Business Daniel J. Simons Why do we miss the curtains change colour? Why did we miss the girl leave the stage?
WHODUNNIT? Fun movie to help increase your scanning vigilance Television ad from England to increase driver s s awareness of cyclists on the road
Now, are you scanning effectively?
Scanning Visual Memory The brain fills in gaps of our vision with the memory of what we saw just seconds before When scanning from one side to the next we miss things because our visual memory fills in the gaps
Series of Events Drowning takes place at a pool in the United States Birthday party during an open swim Approximately 60 to 70 people in pool enclosure with two Life Guards on duty Supposed to be 3 Life Guards on duty
View of Life Guard Position 1
View of Life Guard position #2
Scanning How to improve staff s s ability to scan More emphasis on scanning drills and games during staff training and NLS courses Examples include; Sesame Street Game: One of these things is not like the other How many victims do you spot SEE assessments Videos/photo challenges
Beach A
Beach B
Palm A
Palm B
Wood Chair A
Wood Chair B
Slide A
Slide B
Crazy Slide A
Crazy Slide B
Volley A
Volley B
Aquafit A
AquaFit B
3M A
3M B
Backyard A
Backyard B
Weird Beach A
Weird Beach B
Scanning Thank you Questions Comments Peter Mumford: (905)876-0594 0594 pmumford@cogeco.ca