Roles, Responsibilities, and Legal Framework
What the exam tests
This domain checks whether you can place the occupational first aider inside the Philippine workplace safety system: employer duties, first-aider scope, consent, documentation, and the emergency action plan (EAP).
Core rules
- RA 11058 and its implementing rules (DO 198-18) require employers to provide a safe workplace, OSH training, first-aid supplies, emergency facilities, and trained first aiders at no cost to workers.
- The OSH Committee and safety officer coordinate the EAP; the first aider delivers immediate care within training and escalates to higher care.
- First aid is not diagnosis or prescription. Do not give medicines by injection, suture, or perform procedures beyond your recognized training.
- Obtain consent from a responsive patient. For an unresponsive patient, proceed under implied consent and the workplace EAP.
- Document care objectively: time, findings, interventions, and transfer. Keep records confidential and report to the safety officer.
Worked example
A worker reports crushing chest pain. The first aider ensures scene safety, calls the company emergency line and EMS, keeps the worker at rest, monitors breathing and consciousness, and prepares an AED. The first aider does not drive the patient to hospital alone or claim to diagnose a heart attack. Care and transfer times are recorded.
Traps that cost marks
- Saying the first aider may prescribe antibiotics or give injections.
- Forgetting that employer-provided training and supplies are mandatory, not optional.
- Treating the EAP as paperwork instead of the authority for calling EMS and transferring care.
- Omitting documentation or breaching confidentiality.
Key points
- First aid is immediate, temporary care within training.
- RA 11058/DO 198-18 place first-aid duties on the employer.
- Consent, implied consent, and confidentiality guide action.
- Document times, findings, care, and transfer.
- Escalate through the EAP; do not exceed scope.