Image Credit: Adam Donnelly / CFJC Today

By Dylana Kneeshaw

bc emergency preparedness week

RIH hosts training sessions, practice activities throughout Emergency Preparedness Week

May 10, 2024 | 6:00 PM

KAMLOOPS — As part of Emergency Preparedness Week, Royal Inland Hospital recently hosted a number of training exercises and education sessions for members of the public and staff.

Over the course of this week, the hospital, Interior Health and Health Emergency Management BC offered drop-in classes and drills for staff, and also set up information booths for patients and families walking by.

Colin Swan, who is the emergency preparedness specialist for the Thompson-Cariboo-Shuswap region with Health Emergency Management BC, was set up at Royal Inland Hospital for several activities this week.

“We were looking at some of our violence prevention and active deadly threat training here on Tuesday. We had our booth set up here [this week] and we had some of our evacuation training table-tops that were occurring earlier in the week.”

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Hospital staff and leadership teams took part in practice run-throughs for different ‘code’ scenarios and got to try out some of the equipment that could be used in the event of an evacuation.

While another practice activity gave people a chance to ramp up their personal levels of preparedness — the ‘using a fire extinguisher’ simulation.

“A lot of folks were brought up with, ‘Don’t touch the extinguisher, don’t touch fire alarms,’ and it’s amazing how often that mindset comes into play when we actually go through our drills,” explains Swan. “What this does is it gives people that space to say, ‘I can do this and I’ll develop the confidence and the tricks that I need to be able to safely attack one of these fires.'”

Emergency Preparedness Week in British Columbia runs from May 5 until May 11.