Police work, even if it’s just training, isn’t easy, as former Sparks benefits and risk analyst Karen Caterino found out during her tenure with the city.

“(The officers) would say, ‘Why don’t you come over and watch? In fact, just come over in sweats,’ ”she recalled, laughing. “I’m thinking, ‘This is a setup.’ ”

Just one session of training with the Sparks Police Department gave her the insight she needed to do her job in risk management.

Caterino recently was laid off from the city of Sparks as part of municipal budget cuts, but she has risen above and is now gainfully employed as Nevada’s state risk manager.

Caterino has an expertise in worker’s compensation and general liability. For Sparks, she oversaw the police and fire department employees to ensure they remained safe and well.

“It was great,” Caterino said. “I did ridealongs with them and got a sense of the unique exposures. In my job, that was really key. I’d ask them, ‘Why do you keep hurting yourselves?’ Going through the scenarios, I’d have a better appreciation for why they’re getting injured.”

One of her major accomplishments for Sparks was creating a cardiac wellness program for which she won an award last year. Through a contract with a local vendor, Caterino said, the program offered nutritional counseling, heart monitoring, personal training and access to physicians to keep the police and fire employees healthy and in shape by learning how to lift weights properly and maintain proper diets.

Becoming a risk manager involves some legal expertise and knowledge of policies and protocols, particularly with hospitals, she said.

“You have to know enough to be dangerous,” Caterino said. “A risk professional has to really be able to recognize resources. The city (of Sparks) had a great city attorney’s office to determine some resources, but I also had relationships with hospitals and knew who to contact.”

Because hospitals often refuse to release information because of their own liability, Caterino said sometimes she’d run into roadblocks if a city employee was admitted and she needed to access their information.

Caterino was hired as the benefits and risk analyst for Sparks in 2004, but because of the city’s recent budget woes, her department and its positions were eliminated. She said she has no hard feelings toward the city and feels fortunate that she now works for the state, where she concentrates on worker’s compensation issues and the property and casualty program.

“We have a very active legislative session and I give testimony to any fiscal impact or policy impacting a variety of safety programs throughout the state ... from Las Vegas to Ely to Elko and all the jails,” she said.

Although she has only been in the position for a month, she’s already touring water treatment plants and talking to employees who have had chemical exposures and seeking ways to prevent such accidents.

“I think it gives you a sense of trying to keep people well so they don’t have to go to the emergency room for chronic diseases,” she said. “We’re trying to ensure people’s safety and wellness and if it’s an unsafe situation, then we address it immediately. We can’t address it if it’s not brought to our attention and getting out to meet people.”

Although she already has a master’s degree in business administration, Caterino currently is taking online courses to earn an associate’s degree in risk management through the Insurance Institute of America.

“Nobody in college knows what a risk manager is,” she said. “But ... I perceive it as an opportunity to be one of 50 risk managers throughout the U.S. I’m very fortunate to have a job and enjoy it.”