Days Six, Seven, and Eight: Lifeguard Certification

First of all, I am 98% sure I moved to Florida. I did move to Florida, right? So can anyone explain to me why it's 45 degree outside and I just spent three days in a pool at said temperature. Safe-D does NOT begin with the Ellis lifeguard certification apparently... I know that I wouldn't have been in an outdoor pool at home when it's that cold! (And actually, I just learned yesterday that resort pools don't even open at that temperature...hmmmm)

Saturday morning bright and early was my first day of my licensing class! Disney uses a company called Ellis & Associates for their pools, and in fact they have a very specific course designed for the equipment and help they have at the ready. Disney actually owns our licenses at the end of the course, since they have both paid for it, and have paid us an hourly rate to go through the classes.

Day one was spent in the pool in the morning and then in the classroom in the afternoon. All three days were 8AM-5PM, with an hour break for lunch, which was nice because we were two minutes from my apartment. We have five different instructors, two that were there all 3 days and then the others rotated who was there.

Day one we spent the morning in the pool learning how to do rapid extractions, spontaneous breath checks, and basic saves. That afternoon we learned how to preform CPR on an adult and a child. It was all pretty basic the first day, but it's also a lot that they're throwing at you.

Day two was back boarding a conscious spinal patient, practicing our saves, and then in the afternoon practicing our CPR and learning how to deal with a baby. I think a lot of people go into this class thinking it's going to be easy. We had 45 people Saturday morning. 37 came back the second day, 35 the third, and then an additional 5 didn't pass the test. That doesn't even include all of the people who never passed the swim test, drug test, or vision test, which was so high of a number I don't want to talk about it. Lifeguarding is hard. It's one of the few roles where it's pass or fail, because you literally have lives depending on you. You can't go in thinking you can go out partying every night before work. It's crazy to me how many peopled don't seem to get it.

Day three was test outs! We practiced our CPR in the morning for a couple hours before we started testing. We did our written test at the same time CPR test outs were going on. If you don't pass one of your CPR test outs, you have the chance to retake one, but only one. So if you fail adult, you have to pass baby and child. Honestly, no one is paying attention to you testing, so the stress was off there. Everyone is so worried about their own tests, you could practically feel the anxiety in the room. Once we had all passed the written and CPR test outs, we broke for lunch and I made my escape home.

Just before class on day one I broke my middle toe, and it had been hurting especially bad that day. When I went home to re-wrap it, it was huge and swollen and ugly. Ewww. I was a bit worried about doing my pool test outs with it, but I managed just fine!

Pool test outs are done as a group. That means you pass as a group or you fail as a group. Day 2 they split you up into groups of 3 or 4 and you get a chance to practice before the test. Passing or failing as a group means, if the person who starts the counting counts to the wrong number and you don't correct it? You're as much at fault as they are, if not more so because you noticed what was wrong and didn't fix it. It's meant to test your ability to work as a team, especially when you're working with people you don't like...

So after lunch we came back and regrouped. They rearranged people to fix the empty space that were left from people who didn't pass earlier parts of the tests and we were back into the pool. We had about 45 minutes to practice with our groups. Then they had two groups testing out. If you messed up here, you had one more chance to redo it. Each test was different, even for the people who had to retest. Everyone passed this test (YAY!) and we were finally able to get into dry lothes and go inside where it was a little bit warmer.

After that it was over fairly quickly. We signed a paper saying we understand that when on stand we are expect to react and perform rescues to the best of our ability, that we are always to be rescue ready, and that we will always maintain our 10/20 (10 seconds to see and issue, 20 additional seconds to respond). We were told we get free shoes (Crocs or white tennis shoes) and we were sent on our merry way.

Honestly, as long as you take it seriously and do your study guide you'll be fine. Ellis, unlike Red Cross, is not out to trip you up. Their motto is "make it work". They don't care if you do everything perfect, or according to the book. Just make it work. If you're going to guard at Disney and have any questions, let me know! Have a magical day!