PERSONAL INJURY PREVENTION - BUILDING A SAFETY CULTURE

To work effectively, ships and their crews must work safely. Developing a safety culture will prevent personal injuries on board ships. It is not only the safe and smart way to operate, it is also mandatory. Running a safe ship is important to those who own it, to those who man it, and to those who entrust it with their cargo. It is also an important new emphasis of the revised STCW Convention and the ISM Code.

Specifically, the ISM Code requires ship owners and managers to develop a safety management system, providing safe practices for ship operation, establish safeguards against risk, and continuously improve safety management skills. In this program we will feature the insight and commentary of author Richard Bracken, whose book “Personal Injury Prevention – A Guide to Good Practice”, available on our website, sets out the basic steps in building a true “safety culture” on board ship. According to the author, the worst way to do it is just to put a set of manuals on board the ship and say, “Follow these procedures and everything will be fine”, just because it will not be!

What it really is about is giving the people on the ship the ownership of the procedures. Let them have a part of it when you are developing the procedures. Go around the ship with them. Take the people on board and take them to show you the safe practices. It is an evolving process. During this training, we will identify the six items of personal protective equipment recommended for individual protection, and discuss the ways ships can prevent accidents and injuries before they happen. Moreover, we will see examples of the safe use of on-board tools and equipment.