By now you have all heard about the new Outdoor Risk Management program (ORM). I am happy to announce that as of March of this year the program is available on the NSP website! ORM was over four years in the making and was created by subject matter experts, education professionals, members of the legal community, and, of course, patrollers. There was specific input from the National Ski Areas Association, the Patroller Wellness Taskforce, the Responder Alliance, as well as the NSP Education Committee.
It is designed to give the line patroller a base of knowledge of risk management with an emphasis on how to recognize potential risk and how to approach it. The program consists of 10 modules ranging from the need for ORM general concepts of risk management to ethical considerations. I believe this course will make every patroller a better patroller from the beginning and more of an asset to their patrol and the resort they serve. It is important to note this program is, and will be, a work in progress and nothing is to be interpreted as a strict requirement. We need to be consistently monitoring changes and updates within the industry.
As I said the course consists of 10 modules which take about 10 to 15 minutes per module to complete. They can be completed all at once or one at a time at your leisure. While it is designed to be an individual course many patrols are using some modules in their refreshers, specifically modules 3 (Personal Risk Management and 6(Patrol Operations), with some patrols making it mandatory for this season.
Here are the steps to take to enroll:
1. Sign into your account at nsp.org.
2. On your member home page click on the Center For Learning tab at the middle of the top of the page.
3. On the next page click on Go to your Learning Center tab at the middle of the bottom of the page.
4. On the next page type ORM in the search catalog bar and click on the magnifying glass on the right side of the page.
5. In the box titled Outdoor Risk Management click on the black Enroll button.
The feedback we have been receiving has been nothing but positive. With comments like “The content is great,” I never thought to look at it that way,” to “The best couple of hours I’ve spent on any course, NSP or not.” I urge you all to give it a try, you won’t be disappointed. If you have any questions feel free to email orm@nspserves.org.
