Lifeguard - Lifeguarding Role - Operational Management (RID Factors)

Operational Management (RID Factors)

The acronym RID was originated by Frank Pia to summarize important reasons why lifeguards may be unaware of a drowning. The term stands for "failure to Recognize the struggle, the Intrusion of non lifeguard duties upon lifeguards' primary task-preventive lifeguarding, and the Distraction from surveillance duties":

Recognition

• Because drowning is quick and silent, lifeguard attentiveness must be sufficient and constant to detect a brief 20 - 60 second period of drowning. "It is not unusual for drownings to occur while several lifeguards are on duty, the elevated tower unused, and only a few bathers in attendance".
• A lifeguard actively scanning for these events cannot be distracted by explanatory, leisure, or maintenance duties. "To the unknowledgeable observer appear less than fully used and available for additional duties".
• As ground level observation has limited view and more scope for distration, a raised viewing platform (tower or walkway) is "markedly superior" to ground or water level observation, and "the tower guard must be considered the foundation and most important part of the surveillance system". Non-emergency interventions such as explanation and cautioning should be done by ground level staff, not tower-based lifeguard, to minimize distraction. (With just one lifeguard other matters must be kept brief and essential only without permitting interruption.)

Intrusion

• "The second element of the RID factor is the intrusion of maintenance or recreational duties upon the surveillance system of the swimming facility ... maintenance or recreation units will either overtly or covertly renegotiate the lifeguard's task while he or she is on duty, thereby endangering the lives of the swimmers." Leisure activity administrators "need to understand that overt or covert crossing of boundaries and the blurring or renegotiation of a subsystem's primary task are major causes of conflict in parks and recreation agencies", and that "intrusion upon the lifeguard unit by maintenance or recreational tasks ... has also been a direct cause of unwitnessed drownings".
• "The lifeguard should never be assigned recreational or maintenance duties while he or she is a member of the surveillance system". Policies or directions to that effect both "sharply increase" the chance of drownings and accidents, and also the risk of legal liability. The Red cross stated "in their 1983 lifeguard textbook, 'One cannot safely perform the duties of a lifeguard and a coach simultaneously.... The facility should provide separate lifeguard supervision for additional safety during these activities'."
• Attempts to alter the lifeguard role may be interpreted by lifeguards as authorization to alter their role priorities; this must not be allowed to happen or to go unchallenged due to the "serious and perhaps fatal consequences".

Distraction

• "If a distraction from surveillance duties occurs beyond the time limits of the surface struggle of the drowning non-swimmer the lifeguard is either unaware of preventive lifeguarding concepts or chooses to ignore both the agency's priority on his or her duties and established an nationally recognized lifeguarding principles"
• Some lifeguards "cannot or will not satisfactorily fulfill the requirements of their position", for example they may have chosen the role for its "fringe benefits, such as outdoor work in a pleasant recreational setting or the glamour attached to the opportunities to meet attractive individuals". "Any activity that takes the lifeguard away from active surveillance of bathers for more than this brief period of time must be viewed as inattention to duty"
• Regular breaks and overlapping duties should be scheduled to prevent fatigue (the Red Cross suggests 15 minutes per hour).

Pia ends by summarizing the role of lifeguards as guardians of life, and that they should be directed exclusively to this duty and none other, while on surveillance, due to the high value placed on human life.