What makes a security guard proficient? What skills and traits are necessary for truly succeeding in this role? It’s easy to assume competency when viewing a fully uniformed and armed guard standing at a post, but this commanding image does not ensure a full range of required capabilities. There is certainly more involved than the minimum government standards required for licensure.

One element of supporting safety and general welfare is emergency health care and medical treatment. It is easy to overlook this until a situation requires it unexpectedly and every passing second is critical to the life and health of a potential victim.

Common medical emergencies such as heart attacks and strokes, diabetic ketoacidosis or insulin shock, severe dehydration, choking or ingesting toxins, cardiac arrest, seizures, and more typically occur without warning, and a security guard is often the most immediate source of help, either by administering medical aid directly or instructing others nearby in doing so if they are unable to leave their post. Of course, they should alert medical authorities right away, but a protection officer that is adequately prepared for emergency medical response can utilize the precious seconds immediately following an incident that so often are critical to minimizing more extensive injury, and can even be the difference between life and death. Even minimal training for basic procedures like CPR, using an AED, executing the Heimlich maneuver, and checking vital signs and analyzing symptoms can provide tremendous value in many unexpected and potentially hazardous circumstances.

These additional skill sets and labors of preparation are certainly not industry standard for many private security firms, but they are a mark of elite protection agencies with a higher caliber of service and a greater pursuit of excellence. Choose carefully and demand more from a private protection agency, because lives are on the line.