MORE CERTIFICATIONS TO CONSIDER

CERTIFICATIONS NOT ONLY HELP MITIGATE LIABILITY BUT ENSURE A BETTER TEAMS:

You now have a Security Team Leader and a Medical Team Leader to coordinate your response for a myriad of situations that could affect a church. An active shooter may be worst case scenario and what receives the most publicity is is actually one of the least likely. Medical emergencies from twisted ankle on the childrens playground to someone hanging Christmas decorations falling or cutting themselves opening a box having the basic supplies to help while transport them to medical care or wait for the ambulance may be the difference in saving a life, saving a minor injury from becoming major or ability to clean and bandage a minor wound. Try not to have your teams not get tunnel vision and only worry about worst case scenarios but all situations. If the church is occupied there should be someone in the building with at least the phone numbers of all team leaders and important team members so if the defribulator can't be found or know how to operate a phone call can get that information to people in the facility quickly.

While we have already advised having as many people as possible with Red Cross or equivalent CPR a;ong with AED and Basic Life Support to CPR ertifications the more people with diverse knowledge in the building and community the better. Imagine the glory God will receive if one of your congregation members saves a life in the community and the following news stories they mention if not for encouragement of their church and it offering an annual CPR/AED/BLS course they would not have ever been able to render that aid. How often does your church participate in local, regional or national disastor mitigation by sending both supplies and people into disastor zones. Those areas are already taxed for resources and if a percentage of your participating members have emergency medical training how more effective are they? Does your church do local or international mission trips? If so then the trip leaders, especially paid staff on these trips should have at least the more important skills taught in these courses as have discovered there is no 911 in many third world countries we have visited. You may want to carry a medical kit along on these trips along with experienced emergency health care worker(s).

In addition to the courses offered both in person and online by the American Red Cross there are other orgainzations such as the American Academy of CPR & First Aid that offer similar courses that are a little more cost frindly though may not carry the weight of the Red Cross name. We are only naming two and have no financial affiliation with either but there are more but please research any price point training may look at and be sure their certifications are not a waste of money in your states civil court environment before choosing. As mentioned before we have to work with the Red Cross when in a disastor zone and have learned to play by their rules but trust our own church associations to best handle any monetary donations for a disastor that might touch our heart or as part of our regular giving. The North American Mission Board which is an arm of the Southern Baptist Association is the third largest disastor relief organization in the world and 100% of your donations go to the vicitms instead of salaries as happens with Red Cross. Church of God Ministries Disaster Relief is a huge contributor as well and worthy organization as is the LDS Charities Disaster Relief branch. This site is non denominational and we will give credit to others we always see knee deep in the muck of a mess with a smile and compassionate shoulder.

Enough on our off topic views on how to financially support disaster relief and back to how any church or organization should look at imporoving thier ability to manage the medical aspect of an immediate issue while limiting their fiscal liability in doing so. It is not enough just to reccomend congregation members, team members and staff to take CPR as a minimum but all persons working in nurseries and childrens areas should take the Pediatric/Child/Adult version as the requirements for rendering aid to people of differning ages vary greatly. Just as infants and children differ your elderly must be considered as it can be easy to break the ternum of someone with osteoporosis or thier spine if attempt to move them without proper use of a backboard. Evaluate your congregation carefully as a whole and expecially look at your special needs members.

Children in the nursery or childrens church often have extreme allergies requiring immediate use of an epi pen thus this life saving tool should be available and whoever oversees these children trained to administer their medicine while parents are found and notified. A system in which each child left with staff or teachers away from parents with a signicant allergy of any kind whether it be a food allery, bee stings or whatever must be instituted. The owner and main contributor to this site wears a Medicalert bracelet every dya 24/7/365 and is only removed at request of an imaging tech or surgeon for however long they require and back on it goes. We encourage instituting a rule that children left with childrens workers with allergies be required to wear a Medicalert bracelet or necklace so if they go into allergic reaction, workers were not told of their condition and are not wearing such the parents are in violation of church policy rather than the church being responsible for tracking each child as an extra layer of liability reduction.

If you happen to have an EMT or Paramedic on security team, medical team, usher or whatever try to station them near the children if possible. If have a nurse, physician, P.A., N.P., etc who has a heart for working with children it would ne wise to place them in the childrens area as infants especially along with toddlers cannot easily describe an emergeny health issue even parents are unaware of. Have known people who's first reaction to a significant allergy occured in pre-school, kindergarden, elementary school, Boy Scouts, Sunday School or Vacation Bible School environment with no foreknowledge or warning from parents or doctors. Being able to diagnose such an event and administer a controlled drug such as epinephrine to a child quickly may be the difference between a child dying while in the care of your church.

Living in the land of litigation is a primary concern to how your medical team is organized and run. If your church has an attorney who can help we suggest you consult them in forming and running your team based on your states laws. If your church has an active shooter event your trauma team working in most effective and legal manner will save lives while minimizing potential litigation. If asked, we will do our best to help. We will be adding/updating with more information on First Aid legal issues and certifications regularly. Below you will find links to pages covering other certifications and why we place significant importance on them for more than just an active shooter scenario.

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MITIGATING MEDICAL LIABILITY HOME PAGE

MANDITORY CHURCH SECURITY CERTIFICATIONS