You might be a lone worker and not even realise it.
When people hear the term “lone worker”, they often imagine someone who spends their entire working day completely alone like a security guard working a night shift, a farmer working in a field or an engineer working at a remote site.
Lone working can be much broader than that.
You could be visiting properties alone, traveling between jobs solo, working on a large estate far from colleagues or a cleaner working in vacant buildings. It’s not that you have to be spending your entire working day alone, it could just be part of your working day.
And that raises an important question:
If something serious happened while you were alone, would you know what to do?
A Lone Worker Seriously Injured First Aid course focuses on how a person can respond to a serious medical emergency on themselves when there is nobody else immediately available to help.
What is a lone worker?
The Health and Safety Executive defines lone workers as people who work by themselves without close or direct supervision. There can be additional challenges when something goes wrong because there may be nobody nearby to provide immediate assistance.
That means you don’t have to spend your entire working day alone to be a lone worker. You could be surrounded by colleagues for most of your day but then spend several hours working separately from them.
The question to ask is not simply:
“Do I work alone?”
It is:
“Could I find myself dealing with an emergency without another person immediately available to help me?”
That distinction matters when choosing a first aid course based on your risk assessment.Â
Under the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations, employers must assess and manage risks to lone workers. HSE guidance says employers must train, supervise and monitor lone workers, keep in touch with them and respond to incidents.
The level of supervision should be based on the risk assessment, with higher-risk work potentially requiring greater supervision.
Employers should consider the particular risks that may affect lone workers, including:
- Violence
- Stress and mental health or wellbeing
- Whether someone is medically suitable to work alone
- The workplace itself, particularly where it is rural or isolated
Emergency arrangements are also important.
The HSE advises employers to put emergency procedures in place and train lone workers in how to use them. Depending on the findings of the risk assessment, lone workers may need to carry first-aid equipment, receive first-aid training that includes administering first aid to themselves, and have access to adequate first-aid facilities.
So there isn’t a single HSE rule that says:
“Every lone worker must complete a lone worker first aid course.”
Instead, employers need to assess the risks and put appropriate arrangements, training and support in place.
For higher risk or isolated work, that assessment may identify a need for specific training that prepares someone to deal with an emergency when nobody else is immediately available.
Do lone workers need first aid training?
Not every lone worker is automatically required to complete a specific first aid course.
First aid arrangements should be based on an assessment of the risks and circumstances of the workplace. Employers should use their first aid needs assessment to decide what training and provision is appropriate.
However, the HSE specifically highlights first aid as an important consideration for lone workers.
Its guidance states that a risk assessment may indicate that lone workers should carry first aid equipment, receive first aid training including how to use first aid on themselves, and have access to adequate first-aid facilities.
They also state that lone workers may need additional training because it can be harder for them to get help. Training should help workers understand the risks associated with their work, how to control those risks and how to cope with unexpected situations.
Does your first aid training reflect the reality of your working environment?
What is lone worker first aid training?
Lone worker first aid training is designed around a very different scenario from traditional first aid.
Usually, first aid training involves one person helping another.
The first aider: “I’ll help you.”
The casualty: “I need help.”
When those two people are the same person, that’s the situation a Lone Worker Seriously Injured course is designed to address.
Our, DAC Education’s, lone worker first aid course is a half day Level 3 accredited course.Â
The course covers:
- Getting help
- Catastrophic bleeding
- Identifying illness
- Physically isolated incidents
- Administering first aid to yourself
- Carrying the correct first-aid kit
- First-aid skills for adults in remote or isolated settings
It is intended for people including farmers and agricultural workers, gas engineers, telecoms engineers, property maintenance workers, landscapers and others working alone in potentially high risk environments The course is also designed to build confidence and competence, rather than simply providing theoretical knowledge.
Why did DAC create a lone worker first aid course?
We created and designed our specific LWSI course because there was a gap.
There are many established workplace first aid courses. There are also specialist courses for particular industries and environments.
But the question “What happens when the person who needs first aid is the only person there?” deserves specific attention.
It was designed by our MD around the reality of a lone worker dealing with a serious injury or medical emergency without another person immediately available to help.
It’s a relatively specialised area of first aid training and one that we believe deserves far more attention, because lone working isn’t restricted to one particular industry.
