A recent near drowning at a local pool raised a lot of questions, and Internet critiques, about lifeguard training.

Some people rallied around pool personnel, while others just wanted to lay blame, even though the incident had a successful resolution and the majority of the commenters were not at the pool when the accident happened.Details were offered by several eyewitnesses, including a certified nurse assistant who helped perform CPR, indicating the lifeguard nearest to the child in distress was unable to perform cardiopulmonary resuscitation. The teenage lifeguard and pool management were bombarded with cruel and untrue comments, most blasting the lifeguard for not being CPR certified.Those "details" were clarified by Lansford Police Sgt. Jack Soberick, who said, "Pool personnel, including the lifeguards, followed the pool's emergency action plan."Every lifeguard in Pennsylvania is required to be Lifeguard Certified. Certification in Pennsylvania is provided by the American Red Cross. With that certification comes certification in CPR/AED. But, just because you've passed a course and received a certificate, are you truly ready to perform chest compressions and rescue breathing?Liz Pinkey of Tamaqua has been a swim instructor for nearly 30 years. Just about half of that time as a volunteer, the other half as an American Red Cross Water Safety Instructor. Her swim credentials are stellar lifeguard instructor, swim coach, pool manager, interim aquatics director and lifeguard at every conceivable type of pool. She has rescued several people from the water, but not once, in all that time, has she been called on to perform CPR, rescue breathing or any lifesaving skill."I've been very lucky," she said.TrainingAs someone who has been the pupil and the instructor, she has conflicted feelings.The lifeguarding course is 25 hours long and deals with water rescues, professional responsibilities, rescue breathing, CPR, blocked airways, spinal injuries, basic first aid and ways to improve your surveillance capabilities so you can spot someone in trouble.Pinkey can reel off the facts about the course, the skill check sheets and written exams. But those are facts."The reality," she said, "is that no one can learn to be a lifeguard in 25 hours, in a pool full of other people training for the same profession."When a person takes the lifeguard certification test, there are none of the distractions that can be found at a public pool. There is a skill check list and a written test encompassing what you've learned during your course. An 80 percent or better is needed to be certified.As Pinkey sees it, "if you get that 80 percent or better, it just means you completed that part of the course successfully on that given day."She compares it to a teen taking a test for their driver's license."If you get your license on a sunny day in July, the test administrator has no way of knowing if you can safely operate that vehicle in an ice storm in January."Both tests are taken in carefully controlled environments with specific directions. How does this prepare you for flying down a freeway at 70 mph or watching over a pool filled with dozens, if not hundreds of people who are screaming back and forth, jumping in and out of the water and more? It doesn't, yet you come away in one case with a license to drive a car anywhere, in any conditions and, in the other case, a certification that says you are prepared for any water emergency."To become a good driver, you need hours and hours and hours of practical experience. It makes sense then, according to Pinkey, that "being a successful lifeguard requires more than certification. It also requires experience and additional training."Her first job as a lifeguard was spent sitting in a chair for eight hours a day, occasionally blowing a whistle to get a patron's attention for running or playing too roughly.The next job included a week of preseason training, which included time spent working on emergency action plans, using pool rescue equipment, training and drilling for possible scenarios.By the time the pool opened to the public, the lifeguards knew each other's strengths and weaknesses and how each would respond in an emergency. That became her standard, something she tried to impress on any lifeguard she trained."Every facility, every staff is different. You really need to spend a lot of time learning how your facility is going to respond to an emergency before you ever sit in that chair. Ideally, you get to a point where your response is so ingrained that it becomes an instinct rather than something you have to think about."The jobLifeguarding can seem like a glamorous or easy job sitting by the pool, soaking up some sun, spending time with friends.But it's not.It is a professional position that requires extensive training. Accidents can happen in the blink of an eye and no one knows exactly what they are capable of until they are tested under fire. The lifeguard's job is basically to prevent accidents from happening and respond correctly to any accident that does happen. To do that, they need a trained support system."Anyone thinking of becoming a lifeguard needs to realize the cold, hard fact that if they aren't properly trained and prepared, someone could die. Before you go for that certification, ask yourself if you can truly handle a life-or-death situation," Pinkey said.Lifeguarding is not a baby-sitting job. Although some parents or guardians seem to have no qualms dropping their children off at the community pool, leaving them there for hours on end, it is their job to provide supervision, not leave it up to the lifeguards and pool staff.A day at the community pool can quickly turn into a recipe for disaster if all the proper "ingredients" aren't in place.Those ingredients include properly trained pool personnel, pool specific training/emergency plans and parents being parents.