completing accident/incident reports: recommendations to avoid legal pitfalls

摘要

Imagine you are an instructor in a STEM education lab or makerspace. It is early in the day, and students are working on an engineering design challenge using hand and power tools. You are circulating around the classroom supervising and assisting students. Suddenly a student yells that a classmate is bleeding. You rush over to find the student's hand is punctured from trying to use a screwdriver to scrape hot glue off of their project. You have to think very quickly about what to do. You don't have time to read your notes from previous safety training. Immediately you instruct a trustworthy student to call the school nurse and tell other students to stay back. You put on a pair of vinyl gloves from your first aid kit and use gauze to put pressure on the bleeding until the school nurse arrives. After the accident you are still shaken by what happened and have decided to assign nonlaboratory activities for the rest of the day. Your principal contacts you and requests a written explanation of what happened by the end the school day to help prepare for the inevitable call from the parent/guardian.