Patron Surveillance: A Key Component of Lifeguarding Services

Lifeguards play an important role in a swimming facility’s risk management program. Lifeguards are trained to monitor the aquatic environment, supervise patrons, inform patrons about the potential for injury, educate them about the consequences of injuryproducing behavior, and enforce rules and regulations that prevent injuries. They are also, of course, expected to perform rescues to prevent drownings and to provide immediate first aid and CPR. But to do so, they must first identify persons who are in distress in the water.

Patron surveillance is key to preventing aquatic injury. It involves maintaining a constant watch over persons both in and out of the water and over the aquatic facility in order to identify circumstances that may cause injury. Action can then be taken to prevent or minimize injury. For example, a lifeguard may notice a small child playing alone in the water near a known drop-off and intervene before the child steps in water that is too deep. A lifeguard may also observe a person struggling in the water and perform a timely rescue.

The importance of lifeguards providing patron surveillance, especially monitoring the behavior of swimmers, can be demonstrated with a brief description of how persons drown. Many people assume that drowning persons are easy to identify because they will exhibit obvious signs of distress in the water, such as yelling or waving their arms. However, this kind of behavior is not common. Instead, people tend to drown in more quiet, less attention-getting ways. Drowning persons usually struggle to keep their mouth above the surface of the water in order to breathe. Struggling to stay afloat and possibly suffocating, they are rarely able to call out or wave their arms. Observational studies of persons at flat water (non-surf) beaches have revealed that non-swimming adults who find themselves in water over their heads are generally able to struggle on the surface of the water for about 60 seconds, while infants and very small children can submerge in as little as 20 seconds. These characteristics of drowning -- the inability of a person to call or wave for help and the short time period before submerging -- emphasize the need for lifeguards as a source for continuous surveillance and immediate action.⁷

However, supervisors and managers at aquatic facilities sometimes make the mistake of assigning lifeguards unrelated duties to perform while also expecting them to conduct effective patron surveillance. Because drowning can occur quickly and quietly, it is not surprising that lifeguards, distracted from keeping an eye on the water by other assigned duties, have failed to spot drowning persons in time to rescue them. Indeed, unobserved drownings have occurred even while lifeguards were stationed 20 feet from the water, taking tickets of those entering the facility or selling refreshments. It is clear, therefore, that swimming facilities must be staffed adequately to ensure effective and continuous patron surveillance, and that lifeguards should be given no other task that would distract them from this work. This concept is also supported by the USLA. The USLA requires lifeguard agencies seeking USLA certification to adhere to the following principles: "Lifeguards assigned to supervise an aquatic area shall not be subject to duties that would distract or intrude their attention from proper observation of persons in the waterfront area, or that prevent immediate assistance to persons in distress in the water. Specifically, lifeguards assigned to water surveillance shall not be assigned to any duties other than public safety" (USLA, 2000).

⁷ These characteristics of persons in distress in the water have been called the Instinctive Drowning Response by Pia (Pia F., 1971, On Drowning, 2nd rev. ed, Water Safety films, Inc., Larchmont, NY; Pia F., 1974 Observations on the drowning of nonswimmers. Journal of Physical Education, The YMCA Society of North America, Warsaw, IN).