fire policy

[makes needs known]

Our old fire policy was to pull the alarm 1st, and then to rescue pts.that were at risk. The reason made sense because, if we became overcome by smoke or injury, things could become worse. No one would know there was a fire. Pulling the alarm 1st would activate the system. Now we use RACE that dictates that we rescue pts. and then pull the alarm. I have looked online and it seems that RACE is the prevailing system. What policy do you use?

[mvm2]

Just a few months ago I took my CNA classes and RACE was what we were taught and what was in our book. RACE does make sence becase the R stands for REMOVE resident from danger. That tells me that if the resident is in danger, it is more important to get that resident out of the danger zone before you find the alarm in the hallway. You also can scream fire while you are trying to help your resident and someone else could pull the alarm too. The residents safty must come first.

Remember what you would do at home. What would the first thing you would do. Get you and the family out of the house then call 911. Or call 911 then get out. The same thing has to be done at work. Get the resident out then A is ACTIVATE 911 which would be alarms and calling 911

[JDZ344]

We are taught to raise the alarm first.

However, in real life, I would take the resident out of the room with me, if it didn't involve a transfer, and then raise the alarm.

[mvm2]

However, in real life, I would take the resident out of the room with me, if it didn't involve a transfer, and then raise the alarm.

That is what I am talking about. You can yell fire to let people know, but I would not leave a resident in a room with a fire and then pull the fire alarm then go back for the resident.

[VictoriaGayle]

Are they actually expecting you to do that, if you are right beside them and the fire is in their room or something?

I was picturing someone noticing fire, then pulling the alarm as they ran down the hall to evacuate. I guess this includes calling 911 though.

It would be hard to spend even a few minutes NOT getting people out to send an alarm, but realistically in a hospital setting there are so many people you can't evacuate as many as a firefighter. You are slightly delaying your evacuation efforts to prevent delaying theirs.

[bugya90, ASN, BSN, LVN, RN]

We are taught RACE but we are also taught to scream fire as loud as we can and if we hear someone else screaming we add to automatically pull the alarm before going to assist the original person that screamed fire. If you have coworkers within hearing distance which is likely the case for most people, use them. You don't have to be a superhero.

[psu_213, BSN, RN]

Everywhere I've worked has followed "RACE." I learned the R is rescue (but remove works too). This does not mean that you go running into a burning room to try and pull someone out. Pay attention to your fire drills and they will guide you on how to correctly RACE in the case of a fine.