Awaken safety awareness.

What's loud, catchy, and reduces the number of accidents at camp? Safety notes! This fun, popular program woke up the safety awareness potential in campers at Greene Family Camp and helped reduce accidents by 66 percent!

ACA-accredited Greene Family Camp in Bruceville, Texas, has always placed a high priority on camper and staff safety. Their manuals and protocols explain the safety standards of every activity, and staff training emphasizes camper safety. The elusive accidents for Greene, as with many other camps, are those that occur in a brief moment of misjudgment, such as when a camper jumps from a bunk or runs down a slippery hill. The challenge to reduce accidents involved creating an awareness at these split-second moments.

Gathering Data

The camp analyzed accident data provided by A.M. Skier Insurance for more than 100 camps nationwide from 1993 to 1995. This data supported the idea that camps have higher accident rates in non-activity related areas than in any single sport or camp activity. Therefore, any intervention must target overall behavior, not just list rules or guidelines.

The best safety interventions are ones that make involved individuals the owners of the system, says Ed Clay, safety manager for a Texas oil company. Clay pointed out that if people know where accidents are most likely to occur and in what situations, then they will be more likely to monitor each other and themselves more closely in those circumstances.

Knowing that the campers themselves needed to become more safety conscious, the next step was to deliver the challenge and provide an effective motivator. Louis Dobin, director of Greene Family Camp, suggested that his campers love to hear their names read over the loudspeaker during meals.

Implementing Safety Notes

Using this information, the following interventions were formulated.

* During orientation, the director will explain to campers that although not many accidents happen at camp, the majority that do are a result of a brief moment when people do not pay attention to what could happen and that accidents often occur in places people would least expect. For example, most accidents occur in the living areas, while walking from one location to another, or during dining or group assemblies. The director will explain that most accidents happen when campers are just goofing around. He will encourage campers to think about the possibilities of their actions and to change potentially dangerous behavior.

* Potentially dangerous situations, such as a wet spot on the floor, an exposed nail, or a cabinet that won't stay closed, should be reported to the director or camp staff.

* Campers should catch other campers being safe or preventing accidents with thoughtful action. If campers catch someone being safe, they should write a "safety note" and place it in the proper box in the dining hall. They should remember to sign the note, which will be read during announcements at the noon meal.

These interventions were implemented at Greene during the second session of the 1996 summer season. According to director Louis Dobin, safety notes became "part of the camp culture." As the noon meal ended and the campers anticipated the announcements, they would start clapping and stomping their feet to the cadence of "SAFE - T - NOTES! SAFE - T - NOTES!" When each note was read, campers would cheer. The name of the safety note submitter was also read in the announcement. Some examples of notes include:

* Brooke L. squeegeed the bathroom floor without being asked.

* Russell K. stopped Alex S. from jumping off the top bunk.

* Deborah told Brian L. to tie his shoe.

Beginning of a New Trend?

During the summer of 1997, the safety notes program was used for both sessions at Greene Family Camp. That summer, only nine accidents occurred, down 66 percent from the prior four-year average of twenty-seven. (Greene has 700 to 800 campers over an eight-week period.) The number of both activity- and non-activity-related accidents was lower due to an increase in safety awareness by campers, possibly signaling the beginning of a new trend - safety-conscious behavior.

BeaAnn Braun, R.N., BSN, has been a registered nurse for seventeen years. For the past three summers, she has been a camp nurse for Greene Family Camp in Bruceville, Texas.

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