The 7 Rights : an active reflection tool to develop risk awareness for outdoor first aid education

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Introduction
In their examination of risk management strategies and assessment of in-field hazards, Meerts-Brandsma, Sibthorp, Rochelle, Leemon, and Gookin (2016) reported significant growth in public interest and involvement in being engaged outdoors.This interest would include a growing number of public school teachers in Nova Scotia (Canada) as they add outdoor learning sites to their curricular instruction.Increased levels of engagement has led to agencies requiring training measures to manage risk as a central program component.Responding to the need to develop outdoor-oriented curriculum, St. Francis Xavier University (StFX) launched the Certificate in Outdoor Education (COE) program in 2013 to support and promote best practices for teachers (see Salmon, Williamson, Mitsopoulos-Rubens, Rudin-Brown, & Lenné, 2009).Furthermore, in light of growing interest of outdoor education and its exposure of students to new risks (Horgen, 2013), the Nova Scotia Department of Education and Early Childhood Development (DEECD) (2015) recently updated and released the Nova Scotia Physical Education Safety Guidelines (referred to hereon in as 'the Guidelines').These Guidelines address a wide range of outdoor pursuits and clearly stipulate that wilderness and remote first aid training is essential when teachers are leading outdoor experiences beyond school grounds and are 30 minutes or more away from Emergency Medical Services.This training expectation is supported by Meerts-Brandsma et al.'s (2016) assessment of a risk management strategy, which includes risk assessment procedures.The COE includes the Canadian Red Cross (CRC) (2013) Advanced Wilderness and Remote First Aid (AWRFA) training as part of a core course, EDUC 405H Risk Management in As more teachers in Nova Scotia (Canada) include the outdoors as a part of their curricular instruction, risk awareness is becoming central to their teaching practice.Central to the risk assessment for many outdoor programs is the domain of "prevent and prepare" -the first link in the Chain of Survival Behavior outlined by the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC, 2016).The Certificate in Outdoor Education (COE) requires all teachers to take Advanced Wilderness and Remote First Aid (AWRFA) as a part of a college course offering in an effort to best prepare teachers to keep students safe and active outdoors.Drawing on teachers' reflections, we present key connections made to AWRFA training, based on a debriefing tool we refer to as the "7 Rights."The need for a focused debriefing emerged from concerns during course discussions when teachers claimed they were overwhelmed with AWRFA material, experiential first aid scenarios, and infield care strategies.By developing a framework promoting reflective practice, the 7 Rights has potential to guide future practice by contributing to a safety culture in the effort to prevent and prepare for injuries in outdoor education.
Outdoor Education, to meet the Guidelines in efforts to prevent injuries.

The 7 Rights
The domain "prevent and prepare," the first link in the Chain of Survival Behaviors (IFRC, 2016), is an essential general course outcome in EDUC 405H.Guiding teachers (in the COE program) to meet this outcome of preventing injuries in their planning and leading safe outdoor excursions, we developed the 7 Rights.
The 7 Rights is a debriefing tool to promote reflective practice, currently used in all COE courses (environmental education, mountain biking, backpacking and hiking, orienteering, canoeing, archery, kayaking, Nordic skiing and snowshoeing, and cooperative/team building games).During the initial EDUC 405H offerings, the need for this debriefing framework emerged from formal course discussions and evaluations, when a number of teachers claimed they were overwhelmed with AWRFA material, experiential first aid scenarios, and in-field care strategies as required by the CRC (2013,2017) for first aid training certification.Feedback revealed there lacked a consistent mechanism to debrief first aid training scenarios (i.e., an experiential practice to connect students to learning outcomes).Teachers reported this detracted from their learnings, thus, making it difficult to connect AWRFA learning outcomes to risk assessment and risk management strategies.
EDUC 405H instructors acknowledged scenario debriefings were a potential source of instructional weakness as they tended to be incoherent.The debriefs were often just a replay of in-field sessions, as opposed to opportunities to make solid connections to intended AWRFA outcomes.To improve our debriefing practice, we developed the 7 Rights framework to focus teacher reflections through the following questions: "Am I in the right place, with the right group, at the right time, with the right equipment, using gear in the right way, and have I provided the right resources and supports, along with the right levels of instruction to ensure quality learning?"These questions served to keep teachers applying course content to risk assessment and management, making links to AWRFA outcomes.A number of these teachers, coauthors in this paper, were committed to continuing the conversation in an effort to improve AWRFA learnings through the 7 Rights and to explore how to best incorporate AWRFA learning in their teaching practice.These teachers shared thorough post-course reflections on how they applied their learning from EDUC 405H and how the 7 Rights will guide their outdoor education preparations.

Developing Safety Culture
According to Dickson and Gray (2012), risk management is an organizational approach.Our focus is on prevention as it pertains to outdoor education in public schools.By taking AWRFA training, the intent is for teachers to better prevent injuries and be prepared to utilize the first aid care strategies needed to manage student injuries appropriately according to geographic locations.Thus, it is not unreasonable to expect teachers to employ strategies to prevent injuries via risk management and adhere to the expectation of due diligence (Delaney, 2007) for teachers leading outdoor education.

Nova Scotia Physical Education Safety Guidelines
Lieberman (2017), reported William Forgey, MD, as saying 90% of success in back-country medicine comes from prevention and making good decisions, like front-country and that "treating people is one thing, but keeping them out of trouble is another" (para.17).
Specifically, the Nova Scotia Physical Education Safety Guidelines were revised to increase the capacity of educators to minimize the risks of learning outdoors.A central consideration for the COE was the time variance, set by Emergency Health Services (EHS), in paramedics' ability to respond to emergencies in Nova Scotian urban centers (within nine minutes) versus remote-rural sites (delayed care refers to 30 minutes), including wilderness areas (beyond 60 minutes), in which teachers may be leading outdoor activities.AWRFA (CRC, 2013) and the Guidelines clearly stipulate that planning off-site excursions must account for a variety of location, such as local, municipal, and provincial parklands, including remote and wilderness areas that may not be easily accessible to ambulances.Therefore, the professional expectation is for teachers to consider the EHS timeframes when leading children and youth off school grounds.

Safety as best practice
Some authors have pointed to the importance of focusing on developing a safety culture in relation to risk management (Andkjaer & Arvidsen, 2012a;Andkjaer & Arvidsen, 2012b;Cooper, 2000;Guldenmund, 2000).Based on a cultural analysis of risk, Eichberg (2001) and Mindegård, Andkjaer, and Svendsen (2014) have argued that risk and safety practices can inform a safety culture and can be best analyzed with the participants.As coauthors, we too view safety as a priority area, and we urge teachers to define and construct a safety profile relating to outdoor education for their schools.For teachers involved in this paper, a culture of safety is evolving as a self-driven network of outdoor educators who continue to collaborate on advancing best outdoor practices within Nova Scotia.We think that EDUC 405H promotes a safety culture by including strategies based on advanced first aid practices to minimize risk and maximize safety through conducting risk assessments focused on pre-trip preparation, modeling risk management practices to aid in making quality decisions in the field (Boyes, 2005;Brookes, 2011) by executing emergency response plans.EDUC 405H dedicates over 24 hours to immersing teachers in first aid scenarios that target CRC (2013) AWRFA outcomes.However, despite the time invested in first aid training (over 40 hours), teachers fed back that they required clearer connections to what was taught to help them apply these lessons in their practice.

Advancing first aid training practices
To meet this identified learning gap, EDUC 405H instructors used the 7 Rights to better facilitate the learning by connecting our teachers to the AWRFA outcomes experienced during the first aid training scenarios.The scenarios confirmed for many teachers why the standards in first aid care were high as they were able to consider the demands that the outdoor environment placed on the teacher as the leader.The scenarios provided opportunities for teachers to test their ability to use management strategies to mitigate environmental hazards and risks of leading people in the field.During the scenarios, teachers used a variety of risk matrices to assist in-the-field decision-making when evaluating potential student injuries, with emphasis on recognition, prevention, and response.By the end of our most recent courses, it was clear to EDUC 405H instructors that the 7 Rights afforded richer debriefs and more connected AWRFA learning.This course improvement was important for many reasons: student safety, teacher first aid confidence, and COE program quality.But in short, it was only our impression that the 7 Rights helped to improve learning.According to Bennett, Johnson, Lipman, McEvoy, and Schimelpfenig (2017), there is a lack of "high quality studies [pertaining to] first aid in general, let alone in the wilderness environment" (p.230) despite the fact that wilderness and remote first aid courses are popular with outdoor practitioners and "have become an expected minimum training for many trip leaders" (p.230).Bennet et al. (2017) recognized the need to allow wilderness first aid courses to evolve with evidence-based practices to ensure a "better understanding of what first aid practices are safe and effective in the hands of a lay provider and how best to teach these skills" (p.233), and further recommended continued examination of how well the lay public learns and retains first aid skills and performs first aid techniques (Berden et al., 1994).Current and past studies point to poor skill retention, suggesting the need for reduced course complexity in first aid education and training programs while increasing the frequency of re-certification (Berden et al., 1994;Schumann et al., 2012).The complexity of first aid training and outdoor education skill proficiency required for the teacher to lead outdoors compels us to continue to use the 7 Rights.

Practitioner Reflection as Research
By 2020, the number of COE cohorts offered by StFX will total 12, forming a network of teachers with a shared expertise in outdoor education.The estimated number of trained teachers in this area is projected to be 300, all certified in AWRFA with exposure to the Chain of Survival Behavior (IJFAE, 2017).To ensure quality learning associated with risk assessment for schools and managing risk in-the-field through AWRFA scenarios, EDUC 405H instructors were committed to promoting practices through structured reflections based on a range of possible injuries and environmental conditions, as presented in AWRFA CRC (2013) training.These scenarios were based on typical outdoor schoolbased activities, set in various geographic locations and environments in Nova Scotia.Scenario debriefs typically took between 15-20 minutes, and in this time, EDUC 405H instructors attempt to deepen the initial learning from the scenarios by referring back to the 7 Rights to keep the discussion and learning intact, refining their ongoing analysis of AWRFA practices.
The teacher debriefings from each AWRFA scenario highlighted a key realization for their future practice: the 7 Rights were viewed by teachers as "seven professional responsibilities" that the teacher must uphold.As EDUC405H course instructors, we have come to view the 7 Rights as a tool that not only serves the "prevent and prepare" mantra as a pre-outing exercise, but also as an in-field check for teachers to actively manage their school groups.The CRC's (2008,2013,2017) stance on reflection is based on best practices for learning from direct experience using first aid scenarios (Attarian, 2012).EDUC 405H instructors developed school-based scenarios to aid teachers in contextualizing their understanding of risk on four AWRFA anchors: environment, time and distance, terrain, and resources (actual supplies to provide care and support for the group).All the scenarios were based on typical outdoor activities within the geographic boundaries listed and approved in the Guidelines.

Method
The coauthors of this paper are adhering to Pence and MacGillivray's (2008) reflective inquiry, Lightowler, Rose Stocks-Rankin, and Wilkinson's (2017) stance on practitioner research, and are collaborating in effort to better understand one's own practice (Mitchell et al., 2009).The 7 Rights allowed us to guide in-course reflections and ultimately refine post-course reflections, for the teachers to transfer their learning into schoolbased practice.
Drawing on Schön's (1983) need for ongoing reflection to identify learning, we focused on Pence and MacGillivray's (2008) areas of reflective inquiry: preconceptions, observations, professional change/growth, and personal change/growth.These confirm the 7 Rights can serve as a learning-debriefing tool for teachers in the COE.According to Lightowler et al. (2017), practitioner research is conducted by a group of practitioners (in this case teachers) collaborating and conducting an enquiry to gain insight and understanding into their own practice (Mitchell et. al, 2009).Lightowler et al.'s (2017) and Mitchell et al.'s (2009) research on collaboration affirms the understanding that these findings become knowledge that is ready for others to act on.Moreover, this speaks to our efforts in building a safety culture (Andkjaer, 2012) with Nova Scotian teachers.

The writing process
In May of 2017, we invited all teachers in the COE program who completed EDUC 405H (approximately 80 teachers) to consider sharing their post-course reflections, based on numerous scenario debriefs structured by the 7 Rights.Initially, 10 teachers from different cohorts responded with an interest to continue the discussion to advance our learning around safeoutdoor education practices.In the end, seven were able to commit to this writing project.
We asked each of the teachers to re-examine their final course reflections, and the responses they provided to their colleagues on a Moodle Discussion form.These teachers self-identified that they were active in advancing safe outdoor practices in their schools.Therefore, we asked them to analyze their post-course reflections and evaluate their understanding as actions they can now take because of the 7 Rights.These responses were emailed and read by COE instructors, and sent back to each teacher with questions to advance their thinking specific to the 7 Rights as a reflection tool.The revised reflection was and situated within the overall discussion in this paper.Each teacher was asked to reread the article, comment, and revise as needed to clarify their message specific to their school practices.

Participants
The teachers involved in this discussion as coauthors clearly signaled an interest to continue the collaborative effort in promoting a safety culture in Nova Scotia.They wished to participate in a professional network of educators promoting the 7 Rights in their outdoor education practice.
From their post-course reflections on AWRFA, it became clear that there was a professional interest in advancing a solid understanding of "prevent and prepare" for other teachers in their schools.
These teachers represent school administration, different subject areas and grade levels, and are current leaders in specific outdoor activities.They have taken the lead in their schools to establish a network of educators to promote and advance safety in outdoor education.The 7 Rights, as reflective inquiry, is contrasted to their past practices as outdoor educators, and now serves as learning to guide future outdoor practice.Their connections to AWRFA learning, demonstrates their growth in understanding risk leading students outdoors, aiming to connect to knowledge to advancing best practices.The following are excerpts from post-course reflections: I learned from the first aid scenarios it was better to "prevent than to react."Reflection solidified that careful attention to planning before an excursion is of great importance in preventing an emergency.The 7 Rights reveals potential of [how] "little things" could "become big things if left unchecked."These are the details in leading that are central to the prevention and preparation message.(Patrick)

I live by the motto "be prepared," but…this will only get me so far. It is paramount that all participants are adequately prepared and informed. Preparation time and activities should include students and inform them of the necessary equipment, procedures, and risk factors. Even as an experienced outdoor leader, this course brought to light that I was not going deep enough with self-reflection as an important part of risk assessment in my trip planning. (Ruth)
When it comes to first aid, prevention vs. reaction is best practice.As we were practising hands-on-skills in-field, I now realize…the best practice in first aid is not having to do the skills that we learned.The 7 Rights, along with the range of AWRFA skills, were helping us to see "smart risk practices" for students.It is important to prepare ahead of time and I feel is it good to have students be part of the planning.(Melissa) If teachers wish to lead educational experiences in outdoor environments, they must develop abilities to understand the associated risks.I know that accidents can happen; therefore, Prevention versus Reaction is paramount in our practice.With so many teachers being educated in the 7 Rights in our provincial cohorts, we are developing internal capacity to staff trips with teachers who have abilities and understanding leading safe excursions.(John) When I think about the 7 Rights, I can only conclude that I was basing my outdoor professional practice on my own personal practices.Going outside lulled me into forgetting that I was teaching, that I have professional obligations.I was taking on the attitude, "hey I'm out with the boys for the weekend" approach.Moving forward, working my plan with the 7 Rights will be the foundation for everything I do in a professional capacity in the outdoor classroom.(Kevin) A remote environment could mean no immediate help.Each choice we make as a teacher in the field comes with consideration to one's own safety and the long-term plan that takes into account the students.I feel there is only one real choice: prevention is paramount and thorough planning is vital.During the pre-trip planning, using the 7 Rights as an honest assessment of trip increasing the likelihood of a successful experience just by asking: "Are you in the right place?" Often trips are planned thinking we must lead epic outings when the learning experience desired is possible in our figurative back yard.(Andrew) An understanding of how the 7 Rights can build teacher awareness of prevention is essential for keeping students safe.When you're in a wilderness setting, you are quite literally all in it together.This idea of the 7 Rights and of everyone being responsible for everyone else is almost instinctual as an adult/teacher/parent but it is something that must be taught to our students who, generally speaking because of their age, tend to only focus on themselves.If prevention is truly the key, then having the students take a leadership role will allow them to gain better insight into risk management and also help them stay aware of the group when outdoors.(Peter)

Results
As evidenced by the above reflections, seven teachers have made a direct connection to the importance of injury prevention, as suggested by Forgey (Lieberman, 2017), inferred from their through preparations as best practice in outdoor education.The overarching theme connecting these post-course reflections on the 7 Rights is that teachers were able to cement the "prevent and prepare" mantra as part of their school practice.
Their professional learnings represent the potential for this network of teachers to transfer this first link in the Chain of Survival to their outdoor practice.
After analyzing the reflections shared by these teachers, it is clear that "prevent and prepare" is a common element that unifies their reflections on the 7 Rights.Arriving at this point for us as COE instructors is reassuring considering that the first aid scenarios are connected to the AWRFA course outcomes.A focused debriefing immediately after the scenario and continued reflection based on the 7 Rights revealed the common connection to prevention, despite there being areas unique to each teacher.These individual professional learnings contribute to the overall theme "prevent and prepare," and we will examine these unique connections as EDUC 405H instructors.

Discussion
The 7 Rights deepen the teachers' reflections, and they reveal a heightened sense of awareness regarding safe outdoor practices that will help to influence future practice by keeping teachers honest while planning and leading outdoor excursions.The Chain of Survival Behaviors (IFRC, 2016) represents the foundation for first aid training and the effectiveness is dependent on the provision of good quality training in meeting the educational needs of lay responders.In this context, 'responder' refers to Nova Scotian teachers in the COE.Despite the central finding from these reflections being "prevent and prepare," teachers still must meet an incumbent professional expectation, that is, "the duty to care" (Brown & Zuker, 1998;MacKay, Sutherland, & Pochini, 2013).As such, each teacher revealed an aspect that professionally connects them to providing care in a medical emergency and managing risk in the field with the 7 Rights: 1) Patrick is confident that in trip planning and managing students in the field, the fine details (medically, environmentally, and with the group), cannot go unchecked.This speaks to a teacher's practice based on due diligence.
2) Ruth has affirmed her ability to lead outdoors and has determined that self-reflection can take a teacher deeper in the planning and preparations.
3) Melissa has determined that the 7 Rights is a skill when planning and preparing to lead an outing for students.
4) John has incorporated the 7 Rights as an administrator's ability to lead others and build capacity among teachers.5) Kevin now sees the 7 Rights as a check mechanism to prevent a teacher from being lulled into complacency.
6) Andrew has realized that 7 Rights can help in making safety choices; before you go and while you are there.7) Peter (along with Melissa and Ruth) has determined that the 7 Rights are for students as well, identifying group responsibility, and this speaks clearly to the possibility of extending a safety culture to youth in these learning experiences.
Teachers articulating their connection to AWRFA outcomes using the 7 Rights is essential to risk assessment and risk management.Each of these reflections have uniquely identified and directly embedded the unquestionable tension between and hazard when leading others outdoors.The key transference for these teachers is their professional action that can be taken at the school level contributing to a safety culture.As instructors, we questioned what motivated their learning to take professional action.By exploring these reflections with each of these teachers, we were able to understand how their outdoor practices shifted.
A central EDUC 405H outcome is understanding the realities of the EMS response times in Nova Scotia.The time to response seem to become the critical point for teachers establishing a risk management practice, that naturally includes "prevent and prepare."Andrew extended his reflection to acknowledge that the choices and good decisions (Boyes, 2005;Brookes, 2011) a teacher makes before and during an outing are dependent on the clear understanding of why AWRFA was required rather than recommended in the Guidelines.Andrew now knows that a 911 phone call does not provide instant medical support in his instructional environment.
Our stance in EDUC 405H is as follows: good quality first aid learning is valuable only if it can transfer into practice.This realization is shared with the teachers in this paper, but specifically with John, Peter, and Patrick who were keen on promoting best outdoor practices within their respective schools.They have realized that prescribing AWRFA as a Guideline standard is justified because the training goes beyond just first aid skills satisfying urban environments.They have identified professional competency in: (a) risk assessment (steps for pre-trip planning) and risk management (recognizing and acting on threats in the field) in outdoor environments; (b) emergency procedures, evacuations, and nonevacuation scenarios; (c) managing groups in outdoor settings; and (d) long-term patient care (CRC, 2013).
Peter, Melissa, and Ruth acknowledged that first aid is taught in the workplace to enhance prevention awareness and to learn how to provide initial care.Yet, as many teachers in the COE have learned, the wilderness is not a typical workplace because of the four AWRFA anchors of environment, time and distance, terrain, and resources, where for example, a minor cut to a foot can evolve quickly into an infection and loss of mobility far from help.Therefore, prevention is a shared activity with students and this clearly articulates an active step in building a safety culture in outdoor education.AWRFA assumes a limited reliance on EMS response times -a reality confirmed by these teachers.
Kevin explained that taking a group of students outside requires a deliberate focus on risk assessment and management, and the 7 Rights provide a solid starting point in determining the balance between activity, and learning connections to advance future practice, which can help prevent complacency.Thus, preparation requires due diligence when leading youth outside and should not be taken for granted, and the 7 can guide in-field practices to ensure alertness in preventing injuries.
In ongoing conversations, these teachers acknowledged the 7 Rights as a leadership process to be shared with colleagues in their respective schools.A central element emerging from the reflections supports Forgey's stance on leadership as essential for pre-hospital care in the field (Lieberman, 2017), and the capacity of the teachers, as outdoor educators, to adequately prepare for trips.The reflections allowed these teachers to their abilities in being able to actively practice the first link in the Chain of Survival Behaviors "prevent and prepare" (IJFAE, 2017).Clear from the reflections is the leadership potential these teachers now possess to model sound risk management practices for other educators, contributing to a safety culture in Nova Scotia.

Implications
From the 7 Rights used in the field as a debriefing tool and from post-course reflections, we have learned that it is not good enough to just allow for a free, open discussion when facilitating learning connections to AWRFA outcomes; rather, focused and guided debriefing is essential.Reflections, guided by the 7 Rights, provide us opportunity to making connections to best practices that can be shared with other educators in their schools as part of transference.The AWRFA designation for Nova Scotian teachers is justified in that it is intended for "leaders of groups" (CRC, 2008(CRC, , 2013) ) going "off-site" to remote or wilderness locations; thus, the comprehensive first aid training serves to best prepare teachers.The AWRFA designation includes a primary focus on leadership that enables decision-making capacity and makes experiential connections to teachers' limits in moments of crises and their ability to manage groups in remote-wilderness settings.AWRFA enables teachers to experiment with leadership, first aid skills, and, through reflection, grow as outdoor educators by challenging previous practices, similar to Meerts-Brandsma et al.'s (2016) findings that outdoor leaders must meet a higher standard because of their instructional locations in the outdoors, also acknowledged by teachers in the COE.
Central to the domains in the Chain of Survival Behaviors (IJFAE, 2017) and a significant learning that emanated from teachers' reflections was their appreciation in understanding that first aid was to assess evolving situations in the field when leading other peoples' children outdoors.Future outdoor practice is based on asking whether the selected outdoor activity is worth the gain.When aligned with the 7 Rights, this brought our teachers to a deeper examination and understanding of what due diligence (Delaney, 2007) means in practice for teachers in public schools.
The teachers' reflections on the 7 Rights revealed time and distance as a constant reminder when planning future outings.Knowing that paramedics ultimately decide the geographic boundaries that ensure their own safety really determines where they will teach an outside lesson.Coupled with the experiential understanding of how to mobilize an evacuation of an injured student has clearly illustrated the understanding of long-term patient care.The teachers appreciate the fact that an injured student may very well be in the AWRFAtrained teacher's care for 60 or more minutes.In our discussions, a significant AWRFA learning is the realization that a 911 phone call has limits in this digital age, and a call does not necessarily equate to an immediate resolution.From our postcourse reflections on the 7 Rights, we came to define safety culture as a system of shared professional beliefs, values, customs, behaviors, and practices that the members of a particular group use to ensure safe practices, and this is modeled through a shared learning process.The importance of developing a safety culture gives the COE teachers unified direction at the schoolinstructional level.This is essential if we are to grow a safety culture in Nova Scotia.

Lessons from the field
The teachers who have contributed to this discussion are cognizant that remote care content in the AWRFA prepared them with environmentspecific first aid skills because help is not to be immediately expected as in an urban response.In light of the potential delay in advanced medical care, Forgey's message of prevention as the best first aid (Lieberman, 2017) and also the making good in-field decisions (Boyes, 2005;Brookes, 2011) are now key learnings captured through their reflections that will guide future practice.These multiple aspects of the Chain of Survival Behaviors (IFRC, 2016) support our rationale for why first aid education is needed for teachers leading outdoor education activities.The inclusion of a wilderness or remote designation in the Guidelines compelled the EDUC 405H course to enhance risk management strategies and risk assessment practices by drawing on AWRFA training.
These practitioner reflections have wider implications in that each of the contributors have identified key learnings that can be practically applied to the concept of due diligence (Delaney, 2007).Within the COE, we strive to work as an informed network of educators with a collaborative approach designed to build capacity in promoting safe practices and sharing learnings amongst outdoor educators in Nova Scotia.Due to the continued interest and growth in schools promoting learning in outdoor settings, we still feel it is imperative to include "prevent and prepare" as the starting point for teachers in their lesson planning.
As a reflection tool, the 7 Rights helps guide teachers in connecting to the AWRFA learnings, cutting through the complexity of the course material and reducing their sense of being overwhelmed from the scenarios.We agree with the need to continuously and critically examine what is learned by our participants in the areas of skill and knowledge retention from AWRFA training.The 7 Rights leads us to consider the value reflection has on teachers' abilities to connect to their own learning, encouraging us to consider more effective ways for first aid instructors to discuss the experiential process of learning first aid skills via hands-on mediums.We believe that our paper addresses at least one element -prevent and prepare -in a complex and important area for first aid educational research, taking into account the implications that AWRFA learning has for professional growth specific to outdoor program leaders: our public-school teachers.