Dispelling First Aid Rumors

Everyone knows that rumors can be misleading or even wildly inaccurate. Having recently heard one about First Aid Instruction in British Columbia it seemed like a good idea to provide some facts and hopefully stop this rumor in it´s tracks.

The rumor was that every first aid instructor in BC had lost their instructor´s certification and now needs to re-certify in order to be able to teach again. This is completely false.

One may only guess what may have started such a rumor , here is some factual information that should help clear things up:

First aid instructors usually complete some form of re-certification and/or compliance verification annually. Exactly what that entails depends on which organizations they are partnered with and what types of courses they teach. For example: courses recognized by WorkSafe BC have different requirements than Standard First Aid or Marine First Aid courses.

Periodically training centers are audited by agencies, such as WorkSafe BC, to ensure that they are compliant with all requirements. If a training center falls short during such an audit the instructor may be asked to re-certify or in extreme cases loose their ability to instruct.

From speaking with other instructors around the province: recently, WorkSafe has been conducting a lot of these audits and some instructors may have in fact lost their ability to instruct some courses. This is a small minority and may only have been based on some finding during the audit.

BC First Aid has recently been visited by a representative from WorkSafe BC and, as is evident from our upcoming course schedule we are still teaching. We continue to ensure our certifications are maintained and we are ever expanding the courses we can provide and the different agencies we partner with.

As always, be leery of rumors - they are frequently incorrect.

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