First aid

On behalf of the employer, people leaders may assign a representative to complete a first aid assessment and/or manage the first aid program. People leaders remain responsible for ensuring the workplace complies with regulatory requirements.

All workplaces must complete a new first aid assessment by October 31, 2024.

The assessment should be conducted as soon as possible. The new first aid requirements may change the first aid program currently in place in your workplace.

The criteria for the new first aid assessment include:

• The number of workers at your workplace
• The travel time from the workplace to the closest BC Ambulance station
• Accessibility of the workplace to BC Ambulance employees
• The work activities undertaken at your workplace

The assessment considers these criteria and establishes the level of training and equipment required for your workplace. Additionally, your workplace must consult with the joint occupational health and safety committee and/or employees to review the types of injuries that are likely to occur in the workplace. This ensures the minimum first aid services provided are sufficient for promptly treating and transporting injured workers.

Workplace Health and Safety at the BC Public Service Agency is providing an online assessment tool to help workplaces assess their first aid needs, produce a summary and help with customizing first aid procedures to your workplace. The tool is available as of October 2, 2024.

The online assessment tool will assist most workplaces with determining their first aid needs. Staff from Workplace Health and Safety are available to assist with assessments that the online assessment tool is unable to complete.

After completing your initial new first aid assessment, a documented annual review is required to ensure nothing has changed and appropriate first aid training levels and equipment systems are appropriate.

A new and complete first aid assessment is required if any of your workplace conditions have changed since the initial assessment. For example, changes in the number of employees, changes to your workplace location or the introduction of new activities into your workplace.

The online assessment tool allows information on your existing first aid procedures to be entered. The assessment produces an updated set of procedures including information on completing a first aid drill.

Like the current first aid regulations, all workplaces requiring first aid must complete an annual first aid drill to evaluate effectiveness. This is for all workplaces, whether indoors in buildings or outdoors doing field work.

A first aid drill must also be held if there have been substantive changes to written first aid procedures. The first aid online assessment tool provides procedures for a first aid drill.

For workplaces that will only be in place for a short duration (for example, less than a year) the first aid drill should be held quickly after the workplace is established to test first aid response time, equipment and procedures.

To align with other provinces and national standards the first aid courses have new names and the content has been updated:

• Basic first aid training (1-day course) is equivalent to the old Level 1 training
• Intermediate first aid training (2-day course) is equivalent to the old Level 2 training
• Advanced first aid training (10-day course) is equivalent to the old Level 3 training

The new courses are available from the same providers workplaces have used in the past.

Whether or not employees require new training depends on the results of your new first aid assessment.

For example, if the results of your new first aid assessment indicate first aid training for your workplace is the same or a lower level than your current first aid level training, first aid attendants do not require retraining until their current first aid certificate expires. For example:

Scenario 1

A ministry workplace completes their new first aid assessment. The results indicate one first aid attendant with basic training is required. The workplace’s current first aid attendant has Level 1 training and completed their training in June 2023. As Level 1 is equivalent to the new basic level training, the first aid attendant is adequately trained for the ministry workplace and does not have to renew their training until June 2026, when their current certification expires.

Scenario 2

A ministry workplace completes their new first aid assessment. The results indicate one first aid attendant with intermediate level training is required. The current first aid attendant is Occupational First Aid (OFA) certified at Level 3 and they completed their training in August 2024. Level 3 is a higher level of training than the new intermediate level (old Level 2). As a result, the workplace meets the new requirements for their workplace.

If the first aid attendant continues in their first aid role beyond their certificate expiry date (August 2027), they need to retrain closer to, and ahead of, their certificate expiry date.

Scenario 3

A ministry workplace completes their new first aid assessment. The results indicate one first aid attendant with Intermediate level training is required. The current first aid attendant has Level 1 training. Intermediate level training is a higher level of training than basic training (old Level 1). As a result, the current first aid attendant must take an intermediate level first aid training course to meet the new requirements for their workplace.

Current certificates are valid under the new regulation until their current expiration dates (three years from the date of the course).

Employees taking first aid training after September 1, 2024, will receive the new training.

Suppliers in B.C. are ensuring first aid kits meet the new B.C. Occupational Health and Safety Regulation (OHSR) standards. These standards align with Canadian Standards Association (CSA) standards used by other provinces across Canada.

If the results from your new first aid assessment indicate your workplace’s level of first aid does not change, you may only need to update the supplies in the kit. For example, if under the current regulations a workplace requires a Level 1 first aid kit and under the new regulations requires a basic first aid kit, the workplace may buy supplies individually to update the current kit or purchase a refill kit for a basic first aid kit and add it to the current first aid kit.

If the results from your new first aid assessment indicate your workplace’s level of first aid has increased, a new kit is required to be purchased. For example, currently a workplace requires a Level 1 first aid kit, and the new assessment indicates an intermediate kit is required, a new first aid kit needs to be purchased.

WorkSafeBC states:

Employers are expected to move to these new contents as new kits are purchased or supplies are replaced. Existing kits should be supplemented with any significantly different components required in the equivalent CSA-aligned kit.

However, there is no expectation for employers to dispose of existing first aid supplies that are substantially the same, with only minor differences in sizes or descriptions.

A ’remote’ workplace means it is more than 30 minutes travel time from a BC Ambulance station under normal travel conditions and speed limit rules during working hours (not with emergency lights and siren).

A ’less accessible’ workplace is a workplace where:

• BC Emergency Health Services (BCEHS) ambulances are unable to access travelling by land
• BCEHS Ambulance attendants are unable to safely access

Ambulance personnel are not permitted to enter hazardous areas and will not perform rescue activities. Workplaces that are ’less accessible’ must have first aid attendants with the appropriate level of training and equipment and a plan to safely transport workers to a place accessible to BCEHS Ambulance.

A first aid assessment must be completed for fieldwork. The work activity for fieldwork is different than the office workplace where staff are based or dispatched from.

If the same type of fieldwork is being completed in different workplace locations a single first aid assessment may be used for the multiple workplace locations.

For example:

Staff complete home visits in an urban area that no locations are more than 30 minutes response time. All of the staff completing this could be covered by one assessment

Staff go into the forest to complete wildlife observations. The work areas that will be more than 30 minutes away from an ambulance station, the work site will be less accessible and ministry have to get an injured worker to the trailhead to meet the ambulance.  Any staff doing this type work can be covered by one assessment.  

Site specific first aid procedures, evacuation plans, check in and out, etc., must be completed for each fieldwork location where employees are working, even if the same type of fieldwork is being completed. For example, plans for field work must include a plan to get the injured worker to a place that is accessible to BC Ambulance for transporting the worker to a hospital.

One of WorkSafeBC’s goals with the new first aid regulation is to focus on high-risk remote industries to ensure adequate levels of first aid, equipment and transportation are in place. In some cases, this may increase the first aid requirements for your workplace.

Remote workplaces may see an increase in their requirements for emergency transport vehicles (ETVs) or require multiple levels of first aid attendants.

• WorkSafeBC New First Aid Requirements (video)
• WorkSafeBC New First Aid Requirements web page
• Licenses and Certificates