Operational vs Training Equipment
October 17, 2025
Does the following scenario sound familiar? Your facility extraction/spinal board on deck (or hanging from the wall) that is there to meet health code is also the same piece of equipment used when you run facility training on spinal injury management. If this is the case in your facility, read on. You are more than likely exposing yourself, your staff and your facility to liability in case of equipment failure during an emergency.
Let's clarify a few points before continuing the conversation. In Manitoba (and many other jurisdictions) there are regulations that require certain pieces of equipment to be on site in the pool and ready to use in case of an emergency. These items include an extraction/spinal board, first aid kit, rescue aids, etc. In jurisdictions that do not have regulations for swimming pools you likely are still required to have a similar set of safety equipment on site due to the need to conform to directives from your insurance provider, or due to the findings of previous court cases or fatality inquiries.
Failure to have appropriate equipment on site can result in a variety of penalties, depending on the jurisdiction. These can include facility closure, fines, loss of insurance coverage, or findings of liability in court actions. So, the vast majority of facilities and organizations stay up to date on required equipment, and make sure that it is present at all times. All good, right? Well, maybe.
An unfortunate trend that I see when I visit many facilities (often smaller, more rural locations, but not always) is that the on-deck operational emergency equipment is also used for training purposes. This is especially common with larger, more expensive, pieces of equipment like spinal boards. It can, however, extend to almost any piece of safety equipment in a facility. And, of course, there is always the question of "what if a real emergency occurs where we need equipment x, while equipment x is actively being used for training?"
The main concern here is that using operational emergency equipment during training degrades the equipment over time. Exposure of a spinal board, for example to chlorinated pool water over and over in training sessions is going to cause straps and head blocks to deteriorate. Velcro straps will lose their "stickiness" over time as the fabric degrades due to chlorine exposure. Head blocks will wear out due to similar exposure. Plus, in training, mistakes are quite often made as part of the learning process. Your facility staff may be cautious, but they are human. If you are running public training classes and using the same equipment, the public will be brutal when it comes to treating equipment (and not generally deliberately so, they are simply unfamiliar with proper care, handling and use). Items can be dropped onto hard surfaces, pinched, pulled, compacted or cut. Items not intended to get wet (AEDs, first aid equipment) can be dropped in the pool or drenched by splashes. The end result is a piece of equipment that may no longer be fully functional, but the damage may not be immediately obvious during a physical examination. If that equipment later fails during a real emergency and causes damage or injury to a patron then liability accrues to the facility and its staff as the potential for fatigue/failure is foreseeable.
The solution for this potential liability is to strictly segregate your operational and training equipment. To be 100% clear, yes this will be more expensive for your facility in the short run, but it can save your organization from higher liability and much larger legal costs in the case of an accident. Included in the list of operational safety equipment that should be segregated when it comes to training are such items as extraction/spinal boards, rescue aids, and first aid equipment. A list specific to your facility should be generated based upon your legal requirements and the types of programming you run. It is also important to note that while segregated, the equipment needs to be identical in model/type between your training gear and your operational gear. Facility staff need to practice with exactly the same type equipment they will be using in a real emergency for the training to be effective.
So, let's look at a case study for a fictional mini-waterpark facility. The facility has a lap pool, a leisure pool, and two water slides that empty into their own receiving basin. The lap pool is equipped for hosting swim meets, and has both a one-metre and three-metre springboard in the deep end. The leisure pool includes a beach entry, lazy river feature, wave machine, and two spray features. The facility is required by law to have two spinal boards, four rescue aids, an insulated reaching pole of 3.5 metres in length, and a fully stocked first aid kit on-site and available at all times the facility is open. The facility manager selects Ferno spinal boards with Ferno head immobilizers as the type of board in use by the facility, and 37" rescue tubes as the type of rescue aids used by staff. Additional information is that the facility is a local training hub and besides ongoing staff training there will also be numerous Bronze Medal, National Lifeguard (Pool and Waterpark), and Instructor courses running on-site.
Based upon legal requirements, and the need to segregate operational and training equipment the initial facility equipment load should look something like the following:
- 4 - Ferno Spinal Boards with Head Immobilizers (2 Operational, 2 Training)
- 24 - 37" Rescue Tubes (4 Operational, 4 Operational Reserve, 8 Facility Training, 8 Public Training)
- 2 - Insulated Reaching Poles (1 Operational, 1 Training)
- 3 - Large Trauma Bags (1 Operational, 1 Facility Training, 1 Public Training)
- Assorted First Aid Supplies
Over time, even if not used in an emergency, the operational equipment will begin to degrade or reach a manufacturer's best before/expiry date. Constant water spray in a waterpark type environment aerosolizes chlorine and chloramines from the pool water on an ongoing basis, and this airborne acidic compound causes damages to all surfaces. At that point an expired piece of equipment that is still in good physical condition can be rotated into training use, with a brand new piece of equipment becoming the operational item. First aid supplies generally come with an expiry date, and a constant flow of expired items should be moving from your operational stock to your training stock.
For specific pieces of equipment extra items may be held as an operational reserve separate from training gear. This is often the case with rescue tubes, for example, as the construction of most brands means they are easily damaged even during normal operations. Staff idly picking at seams while on station, one inadvertent grab with sharp nails, or pushing the tube against a bolt on a lifeguard chair while climbing in and out of a station may be enough to cause damage. Daily inspections of all operational safety equipment are required to ensure that damage is spotted as soon as possible. The item in question is then removed from operational status and either disposed of or sent to training use.
Once a system is in place for your facility the split of equipment between operational and training is easy to manage. You will develop a regular schedule, based upon type of equipment, of when retirement and replacement of operational gear takes place. In some facilities this is determined by the lifespan of your training equipment, with new operational equipment purchased when training gear wears out so that the existing operational equipment can transfer over to training. Regardless of how the system is set up, it must be set up. Having a piece of rescue equipment fail during an emergency has been called out as an issue in several inquests held both for aquatic facilities and medical facilities in Canada. You want to make sure that your facility is not the next one cited due to equipment failure in a fatality report.
Pease chime in with your thoughts on this topic through our social media channels or drop us an e-mail.
Christopher Love
President
Wavecrest Aquatics Inc.
