"The Impulse to Rescue": Rescue Altruism and the Challenge of Saving the Rescuer

Rescues conducted by surfers on Australian beaches

“…These hazards are the primary causes of rescues and drowning fatalities along the Australian coastline (Short and Hogan, 1994;Morgan et al, 2008;Brighton et al, 2013;Kennedy et al, 2013;SLSA, 2014). Australian professional lifeguards and volunteer surf lifesavers typically make in excess of 10,000 surf rescues each year (SLSA, 2014) and in the 2013-2014 season, there were 84 coastal fatalities representing a major public health concern with significant personal, societal and economic costs (Sherker et al, 2008;AWSC, 2012;Pearn and Franklin 2012;SLSA, 2014).…”

“…The study of risk factors associated with bystander rescue is a fledgling area of study (Franklin et al, 2010;Franklin and Pearn, 2011;Moran and Stanley, 2013). These rescues are often impulsive acts without full assessment of the hazards and an overestimation of the rescuers own abilities, which can result in highly dangerous situations for both the rescuer and rescuee(s) (Pearn and Franklin, 2012;Moran and Stanley, 2013). Indeed, it is not uncommon for bystanders to become drowning victims (Franklin and Pearn, 2011).…”

Measuring Australian Children’s Water Safety Knowledge: The National Water Safety Quiz

“…Further work is required to improve rivers and rescue knowledge, areas in which our understanding has improved over the last few years (Franklin & Pearn, 2011;Pearn & Franklin, 2012;Peden, Franklin, & Leggat, 2016a). Overall, females demonstrated higher levels of knowledge on all categories when compared to males.…”

A Reasoned Action Approach Assessment of Instructional Youth Swim Safety Messaging

“…It was unclear whether this was seen as a predicator of future positive water safety behavior. One possible reason is a phenomenon known as "rescue altruism" that involves deciding to act as a rescuer even in the face of possible injury or death to oneself, which may be driven by attitudes youth acquire through family structures or film, television, and popular media that often deliver messages demonstrating that the "appropriate response" is to take action (Pearn & Franklin, 2012).…”