If you are not aware, the American Red Cross Lifeguarding program includes a wide array of training programs based on the variety of facilities that utilize their training services.
Most summer camps in Western North Carolina aim for their lifeguards to be waterfront-certified. What that means in American Red Cross terms is they hold a “Lifeguarding (Deep Water) and CPR for the Professional Rescuer and First Aid and Waterfront Skills” certification. The waterfront module is an add-on to the Lifeguarding certification–in fact, a Waterfront Skills add-on is not valid without a current Lifeguarding certification. During the waterfront add-on, students discuss the special considerations when lifeguarding at natural bodies of water, weather and site factors, and procedures that summer camps follow to manage participant safety. Students also practice rescues using specialized equipment like a rescue board and mask and fins. They also practice how to do shallow and deep water searches and discuss how to lifeguard from a rescue watercraft.
In reality, there are some camps that operate their aquatic facilities in a way that may not require a waterfront certification, even if the guards are doing surveillance duty on a natural body of water. This may be you if the following all apply…
Your designated swim area is smaller than a standard lap pool
Your designated swim area is shallow enough that all participants can stand in all areas of the water
Swimmers always wear life jackets
You provide no additional special rescue equipment at the waterfront (i.e. no masks and fins or a rescue board)
You have multiple guards on duty
Your aquatics area does not include special features like aquatic attractions or waterpark features, surf or currents.
Even then, if these all apply, it is still best practice to get your guards trained to the highest standard of care that you can. And to be clear, I am not a lawyer and I am not your insurance agency. Nor am I your local health department. All of the above agencies may have specific guidelines that require a waterfront certification for your guards. I am not offering advice or guidance to you. Instead please see this blog post as a simple opinion based on my experience around camp aquatics and I am not responsible for injury or incidents that may occur if you make certification choices based on this blog post. Please consult with the appropriate folks to confirm any change in policies.
Almost always when I bring up this unpopular opinion, folks say to me “Well the American Camp Association standards say that you have to have a waterfront-certified guard.”
To those folks, I say, “Let’s look at the standards together.”
Click here for the American Red Cross standards relating to lifeguarding certifications.
This is where we read what is in the standard itself.
“ST. 12.1 - To guard each swimming activity, does the camp:
Provide a person who has current certification as a lifeguard by a recognized certifying body? And are lifeguards positioned in locations where they are able to provide effective surveillance, and in close enough proximity to participants to readily respond and execute rescue in an incident/emergency?””
This says nothing about a waterfront certification being required.
“ST.12.2 - To guard each swimming activity, does the camp:
In addition to lifeguard certification, does the camp document that every camp lifeguard has demonstrated skills in rescue and emergency procedures specific to the camp’s swimming area(s) and activities guarded?”
Ah ha! This here is putting the responsibility on the camp to ensure that there is documentation that each guard can perform rescues and carry out emergency procedures specific to the camp’s swimming area and if we look more closely at the contextual education, it specifically states,
“The intent of this standard is to confirm lifeguards can execute not only the skills represented by the certification but also to be sure that lifeguards have the appropriate training and skills to perform rescues specific to the location, type of water, and activities for which they will be guarding.”
To be fair, right before this it says in the contextual education, “ACA strongly recommends a guard has certification specific to the environment they will be guarding (e.g., waterfront, waterpark, pool).” However, this is not listed in the standard and, as I was trained, ACA visitors score based on what it says in the standard itself, not the contextual education. If the standard said, “Provide a person who has current certification specific to the environment they will be guarding as a lifeguard by a recognized certifying body?” then my argument that you could have non-waterfront lifeguards guarding on a natural body of water goes out the window.
To continue my point further, how many of us require lifeguards to be on duty during recreational boating (kayaking, canoeing on flatwater)? When during a regular lifeguard course do these folks practice surveillance from a boat? They don’t even practice this in the waterfront add-on (though it is more specifically discussed in the r.24 curriculum update).
In ST.15.1, the standard requires someone who has an instructor rating in the watercraft OR a lifeguard from a nationally recognized certifying body to be on duty. In the contextual education of this standard, it goes on to say,
“Because most lifeguard training courses are pool based, camps must be certain staff members also have appropriate boating training and rescue skills. “Skill in water rescue and emergency procedures” refers to the ability to execute rescue skills in the location of the activity (e.g., lake, ocean, river) and specific to the watercraft being supervised. Certification courses to meet lifeguard requirements often do not include rescue and emergency training specific to the craft and location; therefore, camps may need to provide or arrange for additional skills training.”
Here once again, I think we see the American Camp Association’s acknowledgement that most lifeguarding courses, especially those not offered at our facilities, are not going to give students all of the surveillance and rescue skills they will need while working for us at camp because often they aren’t just working at a pool. Even so, it is best practice–and largely believed–that the camp has some responsibility in confirming that the skills the staff member demonstrated in the lifeguarding certification course (regardless of where they were taught) need to be verified by the employer.
Another piece to this puzzle of my argument of why all camps may not need waterfront certified guards is that the American Red Cross waterfront module trains staff on using mask and fins for deep water searches and includes rescues with a rescue board. If this is equipment that is not made available to your staff at camp while they are working, I would argue that you may be opening yourself up to some liability if a bad situation arises.
For example, it is known that a mask and fins assists a trained lifeguard in covering more ground in a shorter amount of time during an underwater search. If that difference in time is shown to be the difference between rescuing a drowning person and a body recovery for a patron, then the question WILL be asked “Where is your mask and fins? Weren’t your lifeguards trained to use them? Why were they not present?”
The question you have to ask yourself is is that the liability you want to be exposed to? Or do you prefer to explain what happened by saying that guards were trained on and rehearsed facility-specific protocols that have been reviewed by the organization’s insurance and legal teams. Without Waterfront-certified guards, you may choose for your deep water search protocols may not include that equipment. You may rely on other agencies to complete those kind of searches. Whatever is the case, consider what you are and are not training your guards to do. A national certification can certainly be another nice layer of risk mitigation but there is certainly some liability exposure when we don’t follow every element of the national certification guidelines.
It is similar to how an American Red Cross guards should never be on surveillance duty without their hip pack, rescue tube, and whistle. It could be argued that a waterfront certified guard should never be on duty without access to properly fitted fins and a mask.
Now that we have gotten deep in the weeds, let’s bring it back to the big picture which is as follows:
Certify your guards to the environments they will be guarding in and provide them with the appropriate equipment to do so
Consider what additional safety precautions or site-specific situations may need to be taught to your staff on top of a certification
All organizations have a responsibility to verify the training that their employees have received, even when it is provided in house (because a certification simply means they were able to perform those skills on a particular date and does not promise they will be able to perform those skills again) or on-site
Consider shallow-water lifeguarding training for those that may not be as strong or comfortable in the water as a stepping stone towards learning lifesaving skills. These folks can still assist your deep-water and waterfront certified guards once a drowning or injured person is extricated from the water.
Evaluate your risks and discuss with your insurance company and your lawyer so you can mitigate reasonable risks in the most practical way possible