By Jacques Blais, 5/5 Editorial Committee member (jacques.blais@skipatrol.ca) in collaboration with Geneviève Maillé, Training Manager and Instructor Trainer in AFA and OS for CSP Lanaudière
Gone are the days when you could train on the fly; where becoming an instructor was relatively unstructured: you were a patroller and you were available in the evenings or training days, so you became an instructor.
Today, all CSP instructors and instructor-trainers are certified and recertified through the instructor certification program. This represents a significant time commitment.
Nowadays training at all levels is standardized and immense efforts are invested in each zone, each division and at the national level to ensure uniform delivery of training.
That being said, I draw your attention to the individual effort of training managers, instructor- trainers and instructors.
I recently read the words of Geneviève Maillé, our training manager at CSP Lanaudière (but also instructor-trainer in advanced first aid and on-snow) and it reminded me that people painstakingly invest time to maintain the CSP high standards. Here are these words (I have paraphrased a little to better convey the text):
“Putting together a credible simulation requires an enormous amount of thought. I can easily spend an hour thinking about each scenario when I set up simulations during training. The situation has to be plausible, the vital signs have to correspond to the reality that such a situation would generate, we have to think about all the options that the patrollers can bring us (you imagine that the treatment would be one thing but the patrollers come up with something else, even sometimes between instructors the treatments for the simulation differ, so how do we bring that back, is it adequate or not and why), what is the learning or improvement goal of the simulation (one or two goals per simulation maximum otherwise we get lost, why I’m targeting one issue over another), where I’m going to do it and why (do I want us to concentrate on solving a problem related to the site or with the first aid component), what impact will this simulation have on the resort’s regular activities (is there a risk of taking patrollers away from real cases if I do a simulation that requires five-six-seven-eight patrollers and a lot of equipment…), how it will be perceived by the clientele (doing CPR right in the middle of a family run, that isn’t the best idea, let’s just say)…
As you can see, it’s a lot to think about and the instructors are trained to do it. After all, they have received 24 hours of training to become instructors, plus ongoing coaching from the instructor-trainers. I’d even add that instructors often have their simulations validated to make sure they haven’t forgotten anything. And here, I’ve only covered the questions related to first aid. And don’t forget that, despite all our efforts, we are not always right. So, we also have to be able to bring everything back.”
And she adds: “It’s so easy to introduce bad habits through training … And here, I speak from experience.”
Poor preparation by an instructor can mislead patrollers and promote practices that do not meet the exemplary standards of the CSP. This is why they are so invested!
In addition, the majority of training agents, instructor-trainers and instructors work on the same slopes as you.
Take the time to honour them through national, divisional and zone award programs.
At the very least take the time to thank them!