Photo By Shelby West | Norfolk Naval Shipyard's (NNSY) Fall Protection High Risk Team is a group of...... read more read more
Norfolk Naval Shipyard (NNSY) is in the business of repairing and modernizing our Navy's fleet to serve the mission of protecting America. In order to achieve this mission, the workforce is hitting the deckplate every day to perform the needed maintenance that keeps our Navy's warships strong and ready to return to the fleet. As they work, potential fall hazards span the shipyard's infrastructure, from ladders, elevated platforms, scaffolding, and more. It's important to have the training ready for the employees to protect themselves and avoid a tumble, as well as provide them an avenue to voice their concerns should a hazard need to be eliminated to avoid potential issues in the future.
Enter the NNSY Fall Protection High Risk Team – a group of individuals dedicated to ensuring America's Shipyard is safe and ready to tackle the fall hazards they may encounter on the job.
“We're here for everyone, ready to answer questions and assist where we're needed. We want to be as helpful to our shipyard team as possible and want folks to feel comfortable contacting us and sharing with us their experiences and needs. Whether it's tackle potential hazards or looking into new equipment we could use, we're here to help!” said Temporary Services Shop (Code 990) Fall Protection High Risk Team Lead Karen Whitaker. “We also meet multiple times a month to ensure all the latest information is getting to the workforce when it comes to workplace safety.”
One of the team's latest ventures was one that greatly affects the corporation as a whole, with input coming in from the four public shipyards as well as Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA). With policy changes in fall protection requirements as well as a need for a centralized training within the enterprise that pertains specifically to the work being done at the shipyards, the team was tasked with developing a fall protection competent person course for personnel.
"This course is both in-class and hands-on and pertains to the equipment and knowledge required for folks to be able to develop protection plans and training for fall protection,” said Code 106 Fall Protection Program Manager Joshua Sgambelluri, who's been directly involved in the content, flow, and development of the course itself. “Part of the drive for its development is we simply don't have enough competent persons when it comes to fall protection on the deckplate – with only around 60 currently we needed to find a better way to train our people.”
At the shipyard, most employees who work in areas that require fall protection take an authorized persons course, giving them a brief overview of equipment and safety practices for the job. However, a competent person course is dedicated to going more in-depth with the knowledge and equipment readily available, including understanding the range of harnesses, proper fitting of equipment, and more. With this training, those competent persons are able to take a more leading role to ensure they and their team are ready for a job, planning out what fall protection is needed for projects, figuring out the qualifications and risk assessments, make improvements as needed, and more.
Code 900T Fall Protection Instructor Frank Kauffman has been directly involved in the development of the course and will be the lead instructor for NNSY once the course has finished its full development and is up-and-running with the masses. He noted that another reason this course is needed is to ensure the right training is being implemented across the board for the corporation. “In the past, when we needed to train someone to be a competent person, we would have to send them off-yard to one of the outside vendors to receive the training. However, there was no consistency in that training across the board and many of them were focused on more construction-based training and not on maritime work. We needed something that would give the full depth of knowledge required for the work we do to those ready to take on the challenge.”
Kauffman continued, “This course will also be huge in cost savings for the Navy. We will be able to handle these trainings in house and know that our people are getting the knowledge, skills, and abilities needed to be considered a competent person.”
Sgambelluri added, “The savings will be both direct and indirect, because having more highly-trained personnel on the deckplate will have an immeasurable return on investment. We're working to ensure that each and every fall protection job is done as safely as possible and having these competent persons at the ready will help make that happen.”
Shipyard Instructional Design Center (Code 1170) Instructional Designer Leonard Owens was the lead in constructing and designing the course in order to meet the NAVSEA requirements. He said, "with the need for the course identified, we analyzed the requirements as a corporation as well as had input from the other shipyards to address any local requirements they may have to build something that can be essential and fit the needs of our employees. NAVSEA really stepped in to meet the challenges required, backing us and supporting us as we pushed to get this training off the ground. And with everyone's input and overcoming the challenges of not being able to meet in person, and the continued challenges faced during the COVID-19 pandemic, we've finalized the course and have been able to pilot it with representatives from across the corporation to gain feedback as well as aim for that final approval for our official launch.”
The training is nearing completion, with a pilot taken place in December to highlight what the course will entail in its future launch. "This has been a long time coming for our team and we're all ecstatic to be reaching the finish line," said Kauffman.
Whitaker added, “This is huge for our corporation and we're looking to develop as many competent persons as we can to carry out the mission of the shipyard and the Navy. We want to ensure the safety of our people and give them whatever they need to succeed.”
You can learn more information on fall prevention and protection at the shipyard on the Code 106 WebCentral page: https://webcentral.nnsy.navy.mil/Departments/C106/c106.2/sitepages/Fall%20Protection%20V2.aspx?PageView=Shared. Interested in the High Risk Program? You can reach out to Sgambelluri at Joshua.sgambelluri@navy.mil.
| Date Taken: | 03.03.2022 |
| Date Posted: | 03.03.2022 12:41 |
| Story ID: | 415700 |
| Location: | PORTSMOUTH, VIRGINIA, US |
| Web Views: | 176 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, Catching You Before the “Fall”: NNSY’s Fall Protection High Risk Team Makes Huge Strides in Ensuring a Safe Workplace, by Kristi R Britt, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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