h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

http://www.bbc.co.uk/h2g2/guide/A519527
An article that is of interest to me as I'm a lifeguard. Written by Goth (U114736), it is informative on what lifeguards do and what is necessary to become one.
Goth should be down here shortly to answer questions and the like.

Kenrick

misspelled priorities.
Are you planning to do an entry in beach lifeguards. These persons have more sex than any other mammal on the planet. I can provide you with testimonials if you need them.

ah The curse of spelling. Un fortunetly I am Not qulified in the field of Beach Lifeguarding althogh it does raise some intresting points maybe I could do some reserch on it but it would take a long time coz a lot of the techniques will be diffrent and so therfor the sylibus as well

This article is very well-done, and I definitely see it becoming a part of the Edited Guide. Some suggestions for improvement...

- Everything about this article is well-balanced and suitable to the international audience of the Guide... except the bit on qualifications. That part is, while very well-detailed and useful, incredibly Anglo-centric. There are a few ways you could remedy this.

1) Change the title to reflect the Anglo bias... "Pool Lifeguarding in Britain," or something similar.

2) Find some information from other places regarding qualifications. However, there are likely to be millions of variations, as they would likely change not only from country to country, but state to state, or city to city, depending on who is doing the hiring, so this is probably not a good idea.

3) Rewrite the section so that it isn't so specific, instead discussing general skills and qualifications that all poolside lifeguards *should* possess, and why.

- I know a researcher here who is an expert on psychology, and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder in particular. Would you like LeKZ's assistance on that section?

Yes Please as I've said I don't Know alot on PTSD
Will start on the rest

Hi Goth ,

I am very familiar with PTSD and would be happy to work with you on that subject section. Just tell me how you would prefer I do this. I can take what you have, and elaborate on it, or I can just write a general summary of PTS causes/symptoms/treatment option, and you can use that as reference material.

Alternatively, I can write an Entry on PTS and you can link to it. I've been thinking about doing that anyway. The only problem is as of this writing, I am not at all well, and would not be able to put something like that together very fast. This is Monday (25 June), and I couldn't possibly have anything complete and ready for Peer Review before this Friday.

Scouts and such, opinions on how best to do this? I think the separate entry is best, overall, because the subject of PTS is related to so many different things, and occurs in everything from lifeguarding to automobile accident survivors, to combat veterans, to child abuse survivors.

I don't want to hold Goth's article up, and s/he has adequately covered the basics, in my (informed) opinion. I think a link should be sufficient to take care of any lack of substance.

Goth, if you still/anyway want me to make what you do have completely accurate and a little more substantive, I don't mind. I will end up with a co-researcher name on your article, however. If that is okay with you, let me know.

Kassandra (who has been living with PTS since... and researching/studying and counselling people with PTS since 1983) for LeKZ

Hi Goth, Arpeggio...

I would suggest that the sensible thing is to mention PTS in a single sentence, perhaps in "on the job", and link to an external site on the subject. For example:

"After any incident, a lifeguard is at risk from post traumatic stress. Any lifeguard should be aware of the symptoms and be prepared to seek help if necessary. See _blah_blah_blah_blah_ for details"

And link to an appropriate place. A search for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder will do the job - pick a website which looks fairly good and is written from the survivor's perspective. Alternatively, perhaps Kassandra of LeKZ will be able to point you in the right direction, when she is feeling a little better herself. Or you could use a web directory, such as that of Google's, to give a wide variety of links.

A little knowledge in these circumstances is a dangerous thing, perhaps - it would be better to avoid the topic and direct people elsewhere to the professionals. If we ever get an h2g2 entry on PTSD, it can link there instead, but for now an external link (or links) is the better option.

HI Kassandra of LeKZ
If you could written an artical on PTSD I would be gratfull don't worry about time to much. It will probably take me a week or two before I can do much more in the way of adding/altering the artical anyway as I've been set a 15000 word essay on Buisness Finance and with my spelling it'ill take 6 hours just to spell check it! not to mention grammer etc. oh well just another few weeks till the end of term

You guys can handle this pretty much any way you like. I see three options:

1) Brief one-liner, as suggested by Lucinda.

2) Colaborate on a brief summary of PTSD, focusing on the experience from a lifeguard perspective, to combine with this one. It could still link to a full-blown discourse on PTSD. I have an example of this in my University projects... in one article, I briefly touch on the Battle of Lexington and Concord, covering it in 2 paragraphs or so. My article dedicated to Lexington and Concord itself covers at least 2 pages. LeKZ would, of course, receive researcher credit for a contribution of this sort.

3) Give it up as a bad idea, and just don't talk about PTSD at all.

Addition of U.S. requirements (which I can get) and running it through a spell-checker would do quite a bit of good.

*Michael Notforyou*
Official Scout, h2g2
Researcher U113408

yes please to the US stuf

Ok I've finished the esay phew! and can now get on with the more important work of the entry!

Editorial Note: This conversation has been moved from 'Peer Review' to 'Lifeguards (Pool)'.

This thread has been moved out of the Peer Review Forum because your entry has now been recommended for the Edited Guide.

You can find out what will happen to your entry here: http://www.h2g2.com/SubEditors-Process

Congratulations!

Congratulations from me as well

I used to be a pool life guard for more than 10 years, and that job definitely *IS* boring, it has nothing to do with "Baywatch".

I hope to see it on the Front page very soon!

Jeremy

NQ