BSA Lifeguard shortcomings

[le Voyageur]

Overall, the BSA Lifeguard program is not too bad overall. However, these observations are intended for summer camp CD's, PD's, as well as the Aquatics Director's for their consideration. Now, where this program comes up short are these...

 

1. It does not cover, nor teach scanning, zone controls, or bottom checks. Nor does it require the candidate to be able to reconize the swimmer in distress, or the early signs of a potenial drowning victim.

 

2. It assumes that a person who is qualified to guard a pool can also guard a waterfront.

 

3. It allows an individual to guard river treks in moving water without knowing any of the core, or fundalemental techniques of basic fast water rescue procedures. Nor does the program covers river dynamics and hazards [for short treks on waters rated at class A to C, than the certification is okay, but the BSA Lifeguard should be supervised in class 1's to 2's by a person with a minimum of two years of swift water river running, but never considered for runs in 3 and up]

[OldGreyEagle]

Welcome back,

 

I know white water rescue is a skill unto itself, who accedits it and where do I look for training ?

[ScouterPaul]

le Voyageur

 

Welcome back! I've missed your expertise.

[YoungBlood]

Le Voyageur, I agree with you. The program does fall short in all three of those areas. Although have you ever done other Lifeguard programs? I know that all the other ones I have seen are a joke. BSA lifeguard does a very good job at teaching how to guard at a pool. Any kid that can pass BSA lifeguard can pass the Red Cross and YMCA trainning. I was actually shocked when I read the requirements just now. I didn't realize that everything you said under number one is not covered! The fact is when I earned it and when it is taught at Rodney Scout Reservation we teach all of those things to the applicants. Not only that but we do an LBD with the guys. I don't see anywhere in the Requirements talking about an LBD! Anyway, I think that they should probablly add those to the list of requirements.

 

[jmcquillan]

Anyone care to take a stab at a comparison between the various programs (YMCA, Red Cross, BSA, and others)? I'm no expert in the area, and would be quite interested in how the BSA program stacks up against the others. Where do the others surpass the BSA, if at all? Where does BSA do a better job? Etc?

 

[compdcd]

I'm not too familiar with the newest Red Cross requirements, but having been certified in the past as Red Cross, YMCA, and BSA, I really think that the BSA LIfeguard Cert is by far the most difficult of the three. Years ago, Red Cross and Y were more difficult, but these have gotten less challenging as the BSA classes have gotten more difficult. A lot of this also depends on the instructor. When I am teaching BSA Lifeguard I like to include different rescues and styles from all three. I think that Red Cross excels in teaching rescues with krescue tubes, while the Y and the BSA so a great job in teaching unassisted rescues.

 

So overall, I have to go with the BSA program, and there's mothing wrong with adding a little extra instruction in if you think it's necessary.

[le Voyageur]

My certification has always been ARC. However, in this area the training is taught by USCG rescue swimmers, so we get program enhancements out of the mainstream.

But, I do think, and agree that the BSA program is pretty good. What should be done to make this even better is to break it down into three different levels. That is, a Basic, an Intermediate, and and Advanced certification process. This way, you won't overwhealm the 14 year old just learning lifeguarding, but also leave the door open for more advance training at a later date.

Also, it would be nice for BSA to step up to the plate and create a Aquatics First Responder program for lifeguards that deal directly with aquatic related emergencies. This would help those camps that are located in remote areas considerably.....

 

[not to forget -Thanks for the welcome back]

 

 

[Bob White]

You might be interested in knowing that the man reponsible for writing the entire BSA aquatics program is Al Cahill. Al also wrote the Red Cross program. He spoke annually at my Scout Roundtables when I lived in NY. Al would tell you he wrote the BSA program first and then based the Red Cross program on the BSA one. He would also admit that the BSA course is more challenging overall. For many years Al was the Director of New York State Beaches and made sure that the BSA lifeguard was complete enough to get a scout employment as a NY parks Lifeguard.

 

Just a little trivia for you.

Bob White

[le Voyageur]

Bob White

 

You've brought up an interesting point, in that most private companies (in this area) that hire guards to staff local area pools won't hire a person with a BSA Lifeguard certification. Why, I don't know, but maybe it's nothing more simpler than that these folks are not aware of the training standards for this certification. To bring a BSA LG up to ARC/YMCA standards would require maybe at best, only half a day of training (whereas, it would take a full week to train an ARC guard to BSA standards).

 

As I mentioned in an above post, this certification could be expanded out into three different levels, consider...

 

BSA LG - Basic: the current program as is, but tweaked a little bit with ARC/YMCA requirements to cover the shortcomings mentioned in number one.

 

BSA LG - Intermediate: focused more on waterfronts, and guarding flat water river treks.

 

BSA LG - Advance: would cover guarding not only river treks in fast water, but also programs that have open water elements.

 

Besides the obivous training to a higher level, this could be one way to provide the older scout with more dynamic programs at summer camp.

 

 

 

 

 

[jmcquillan]

le Voyageur

 

Might not this also be a simple case of name recognition? Red Cross and YMCA have a better name recognition out there in the great American public. They've been doing the Lifeguard thing publicly for quite a while. The BSA has been doing it for quite a while, too, but my sense is that we haven't been doing it as publicly. Perhaps within the framework of any proposed change to the program, a greater exposure to the public eye of just what the BSA Lifeguard program entails might do wonders for public and private acceptance of the certification?

 

[Rooster7]

I suspect too, since BSA is a boys program, some people feel that our standards may not be as stringent (even though the opposite is true).

 

Additionally, I wouldn't be surprised if a majority of pool managers were certified by Red Cross or YMCA and have a bias towards those affiliations.