A first aid room is defined as a room in an establishment (e.g. a school, factory, sports venue or airport) to which someone who is injured or taken ill on the premises can be taken for first aid and to await the arrival of professional emergency medical services. A first aid station or first aid post is a manned first aid room – especially a temporary one at a large gathering of people or an emergency incident. In other countries, a first aid room is required in some chemical factories, construction sites, and premises at a distance from medical services. In some cases the room may be used for other purposes when not required for first aid. But if possible, the room should be reserved specifically for providing first aid and a designated person (first-aider or appointed person) should be given responsibility for supervising it. The room should be easily accessible to stretchers and be clearly signposted and identified.
Based on Regulation 1101, the first aid room in every workplace must have certain materials and equipment for it to be functional. Ideally, every employer employing 200 or more workers in any one shift at a place of employment shall provide and maintain a first aid room equipped with the following: a current edition of a standard St. John Ambulance First Aid Manual; instruments consisting of dressing scissors, dressing forceps, safety pins, graduated medicine glass, tongue depressors, and cotton-tipped applicators; denatured ethyl alcohol; and dressings consisting of individually wrapped adhesive dressings, individually wrapped sterile gauze pads of assorted sizes, gauze bandages of assorted sizes, adhesive plaster, absorbent cotton, triangular bandages, splints of assorted sizes, and splint padding. The first aid room must have furnishings consisting of three washbasins of hot and cold running water (preferably stainless steel), one instrument sterilizer, one cabinet for surgical dressings, one enamel foot bath, one sanitary disposal receptacle with lid, one first aid box containing as a minimum the items required in the first aid kit (for use by the attendant at the scene of an accident before the patient is moved to the first aid room or general hospital), one couch curtained off or in a separate cubicle, one stretcher, and two blankets.
Secondly, the employer shall ensure that the first aid room is in the charge of a registered nurse or a worker who is the holder of a valid St. John Ambulance Standard or someone who has a First Aid Certification or any of its equivalent. He/ she must work in the immediate vicinity of the first aid room and does not perform other work of a nature that is likely to affect adversely his or her ability to administer first aid. The certificate mentioned above shall be prominently displayed in the first aid room.
The materials mentioned above are the first aid requirements of the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board, also known as WSIB. It contains the law, specifically the Regulation 1101, and the policy on first aid. These requirements are based upon on ideal settings and may depend on the size of both the physical and manual aspect of the workplace.
Reference:
Brochure on First Aid Requirements Regulation 1101