Hi, my name is Kendyl Lyon and I work in an accident-prone environment. Accidents happen every day and everywhere whether it’s home, work, or on the road. All of us will soon be joining the work force and as exciting as that is, what if an accident happens? Currently I work at the Boys and Girls Club and as you can imagine with 300 kids in one building, accidents happen often. When an accident happens and a child is injured, it is mandatory for the employee who witnessed it to fill out an incident report. Incident reports also will come into play when you or someone else is injured on the job. An incident report will save companies from being sued and will allow you to obtain workman’s compensation. Today I will be teaching the five steps that go into filling out an incident report. These steps include finding the facts, recalling the sequence of events, analyzing what the cause of the incident was, figuring out a game plan or what the consequences should entail, and finally reporting the incident to your supervisor. In my line of work the employees fill these out on a day to day basis, therefore I am able to recall all the details that belong in the report.

Supplies

Incident report

Pen

Step 1: Finding the Facts

When an accident that you need to report happens, it is important to

find all the facts that you can. It matters who the incident involves, how it happened, where it happened, when it happened, and what the injury consists of. There is also a lot of personal information that goes in the report that you may need to look up. The best person to fill out the report is the person that witnessed it. If no one witnessed it and your company has cameras, go back and watch the event again to make sure every detail is correct. However, if no one witnessed it and there are no cameras, interviewing the people involved should provide most of the details needed.

Step 2: Recalling the Sequence of Events

Once all the details are known, recalling the sequence of events is the next step. What was happening before the accident? For example, in my line of work it is helpful to know how many kids were around, if a game was being played before or during the time of the accident, etc. In other lines of work, it may be helpful to know who was around and what the task at hand was. Also, what the task at hand was before the incident could also help.

Step 3: Analyze the Cause of the Incident

The second step will lead you into the third step. What caused the incident? Was it the person injured or another employee? Was equipment faulty? Were regulations not being followed? The cause is possibly the most important step in the incident report because it can save someone from being blamed. If someone didn’t witness the accident, the easiest way to find the cause would to go back and look at cameras. When kids get hurt at my work, we always go back and find a cause. Most of the time the cause is a child who is not following directions, other times it could be a total accident. Knowing these things help decide if there is blame to be put on anyone or if it was just a freak accident. This will help the employee and the company in the end.

Step 4: Deciding on a Course of Action

The second to last step in the incident report is deciding what course of action was/will be taken. For instance, when a kid gets hurt at the Boys and Girls Club some courses of action are getting an ice pack, calming the child down, calling parents, and in worse case scenarios, calling an ambulance. This section of the incident report lets the supervisor know that action was taken to fix or deescalate the accident. Most of the time, supervisors will like to know if regulations were followed because this can also save a company from a lawsuit.

Step 5: Turn the Incident Report Into a Supervisor

Last, but certainly not least, the incident report needs to be given to a supervisor. Also, a copy can be made of the incident report so the person injured has one as well. The incident report will help protect both parties if it were to be a cause for concern. These should be kept on file forever as problems caused by the accident can occur down the road. This will also help if someone needed medical attention and need their insurance paid for by their company. In the end, it saves a lot of people from being in legal trouble for all the wrong reasons.