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Comment by Tade0 | Hacker News Reader

I don't know about the lifeguard situation in USA, in Italy it's pretty terrible;

Interesting, because my impression was that there's a decent amount of staff comparing to my country (Poland).

Also it's the first place at which I've seen a line of lifeguards on rafts making sure nobody reaches the point where they can collide with motorboats.

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I don't know about the Poland situation, but the main problem in Italian (I guess other lifeguard certs too) it's the lack of any required refresher course. Things are changing fast on first aid practices best practice and a lot of people are behind.

Personal example: I'm 20, I am a certified lifeguard (I did the training because I was a competitive swimmer), no experience but I could extend my certificate till I am 65 year old, in whatever physique condition with whatever knowledge of best practice. That's just plain wrong, and I know that a lot of States work in a really different way with refresher courses and such, making pools and sea a safer place.

Luckily, it's much better in the USA, even though many regulations vary across state and county lines. Where I worked, we needed an in-pool refresher course and test every year, with a pool management course (chemicals, filter, etc) every 2 or 3 years. After getting you American Red Cross CPR certification, you needed to take a short refresher course every year for the next 2 years, after which you'd need to retake the course.

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