Workplace Emergency Action Plans are designed with seamless execution in mind and ideally when Emergency Action Plans are activated during an emergency, every aspect should be carried out with little to issues, this is why OSHA encourages practice drills to practice executing Emergency Action Plans as often as necessary to minimize the likelihood that issues that can hinder how employers respond to emergencies. Nevertheless, issues do happen. Processes are forgotten, missteps occur, staff members change, and plans are not always updated when they should be. Issues in executing Emergency Action Plans can cause small problems or large disasters so after each emergency, employers should review how the execution of the Emergency Action Plan went and document what went well and what did not go well in an “after-action” report. For the aspects that did not go well, employers should identify why those aspects did not go well and what can be improved upon so that those issues do not recur. This is called developing “lessons learned.”
This assignment draws from all of the Week 4 learning materials.
Discussion: In your initial post for Wednesday, research on the internet lessons learned from an emergency that occurred at a workplace covered by OSHA’s general industry regulations. Describe two of the lessons learned from the emergency that were of particular interest to you and detail why they are of interest to you.
Response: In two responses to your peers, due by Sunday, select one of the lessons learned in the original post and expand on it with research from the internet on similar emergencies with similar or different lessons learned. Include one lesson learned from an emergency that occurred at your current or previous workplace.