A lineworker-turned-instructor is on a mission to empower all electric cooperative employees with the right tools and mindset to act as first responders during life-threatening emergencies.

Alabama Rural Electric Association Safety Specialist Jeff Whatley, a former emergency medical technician, is working to get more co-ops to enhance linework pole top and bucket rescue trainings with regular automated external defibrillator (AED) and CPR recertification and reviews of mayday procedures. The senior safety specialist also wants to retrain office staff on lifesaving procedures beyond the annual or semi-annual minimum.

“My goal is to quit simply meeting the standard and make this part of conversations every time I meet employees, whether they’re line crew or a member service representative,” said Whatley, a 30-year employee at Montgomery-based co-ops, first as a lineworker at Dixie Electric Cooperative before his role at the statewide association.

It’s so infused into his daily work that he even quizzes his colleagues in passing.

“So when I find an employee walking down a hallway who may not even be tied to a line crew—it may be a customer service representative,” he said.“And the conversation will start like this: ‘Good morning. Can you tell me the number of chest compressions for the number of respirations with CPR?’”

A growing number of co-ops, including those in Alabama, are combining AED, CPR, pole top and bucket rescues on one training continuum, said NRECA Safety Manager Ken Macken.

“For years, co-ops did pole top and bucket rescue and got away from teaching that the victim would probably need CPR and/or AED once they got them to ground,” said Macken. “It’s a great reminder to do this training right along with pole top/bucket rescue and your mayday call procedures.”

Enhanced training is vital for several reasons. If a rescue occurs in an extremely remote area, precious minutes might elapse between rescue and response.

“911 may be anywhere from 15 to 30 minutes showing up, and we might only have a matter of minutes,” said Whatley.

And remembering what to do during an emergency takes practice, said Covington Electric Cooperative Safety and Compliance Manager Jason Saunders, who has worked closely with Whatley. “It’s like playing ball. If you don’t practice, you don’t play well.”

Several years ago, Saunders created one of the state’s first enhanced trainings at the Andalusia-based co-op after some lessons learned in a rescue drill.

“We pulled out our AED simulator and learned it was difficult to use,” he said. “We also gave the crews an opportunity to talk through mayday steps. Each person has a task…someone talks on the radio, one person is in charge of operating the tower controls and so on.”

Saunders’ expertise helped Whatley retool AREA’s program. Another statewide safety specialist, Jay Barnett, recommended inviting local first responders, so both sides can learn from each other.

“They come because they’re interested in what we do, and it really helps my guys, who want to know things like ‘how far do we take our rescue before they step in,’” Barnett said.

Whatley got the opportunity to spread his message even further in the cooperative network as one of 15 speakers for Safety Improvement Talks at NRECA’s Safety Leadership Summit in Arlington, Texas, earlier this year.

If attendees learned one thing, he hoped it was this: “When we do rescues, we need to be ready to cover the entire lifesaving skill set, which includes CPR and first aid.”