The tragedy that occurred in the United States on September 11, 2001 brought enhanced emergency preparedness among first responders to the forefront of public awareness. Since those events and despite significant progress made in many of the areas previously deemed deficient some response areas are still woefully inadequate. Cross-Training for First Responders highlights these weaknesses that, in many cases, still remain in the response community. The book presents concrete solutions that arm first responders with vital knowledge so that they are better prepared in the event of another major incident.

Innovative training

The author demonstrates that the best way responders can prepare for, react to, and mitigate an incident is to require them to train outside their traditional responsibilities thereby developing an understanding of other first responder agencies terms, methods, and operational procedures. Despite this enhanced situational training, communication gaps can occur during cross-response and across regions. The book explains the kind of training required to prevent a lack of situational awareness by those thrust into unfamiliar territory during crisis events or mass disasters. Other topics include ways to curtail the inherent tensions that arise between voluntary and career responders, how to turn conflicts between various responding agencies into collaboration, innovative training strategies, grant opportunities to pay for training and equipment, and the rising trend of on-line training courses.

Testing readiness before an incident occurs

Finally, the book covers mechanisms for testing first responders ability to apply their new cross-training techniques, demonstrates how to plan and conduct a "tabletop" drill, and explains how to review the drill results to determine the areas in which participants are still deficient.

By identifying problem areas and offering concrete solutions, this book enables first responders to harness every possible advantage so that they are prepared and ready to confront the next crisis, no matter where it may strike.

"At a pace matching the flashing lights on a 911 console, Caroline Burau puts us in the hot seat and shows us the madness, the sadness, and the gallows humor of a profession that serves and protects in ways we never dream. And by telling us what goes on when the microphone is silent, she has taken the voice on the radio and given it heart." Michael Perry, author of "Population 485" and "Truck: A Love Story" "A witty, gritty look at life on the receiving end of our cries for help." "Reader's Digest" (Editor's Choice)
You answer a call from a fourteen-year-old boy asking for someone to arrest his mother, who is smoking crack in their bathroom. You talk with him until the cops arrive, making sure there are no weapons around and learning that his favorite subject in school is lunch. Five minutes later, you have to deal with someone complaining about his neighbor's clarinet practice. What is it like to be on the receiving end of desperate calls for help . . . every day? Caroline Burau, a former newspaper reporter and nursing student who couldn't stand the sight of blood, takes a job as an emergency dispatcher because she likes helping people. But on-the-job training at the comm center proves to be more than she bargained for. As she adjusts to a daily life of catastrophe and comedy, domestics and drunks, cops and robbers, junk food and sarcasm, lost cats and suicides, she discovers that crisis can become routine, that coworkers can be mean--that she must continue to care and, at times, learn how to let go. "The day may come when I have to dial 911. I hope to God that the person who answers is Caroline Burau or someone like her. Funny, honest, and elegantly simple, this book left me witha sense of grace and hope."--Alison McGhee, author of "Shadow Baby, Rainlight, Was It Beautiful? "and "Falling Boy" Caroline Burau is a 911 dispatch operator for the police and fire departments in White Bear Lake, Minnesota.

"Stevens brilliantly views the hospital as a prism of the values and mores of society... She sees the stratification of the hospital population into private, semi-private, and charity patients as a manifestation of the social stratifications of American society." -- Reviews in American History

American hospitals are unique: a combination of public and private institutions that are at once charities and businesses, social welfare institutions and icons of U.S. science, wealth, and technical achievement. In Sickness and in Wealth helps us understand this huge and often contradictory "industry" and shows that throughout this century the voluntary not-for-profit hospitals have been profit-maximizing enterprises, even though they have viewed themselves as charities serving the community. Although our hospitals have provided the most advanced medical care for acutely sick and curable patients, they have been much less successful in meeting the needs of the chronically ill and the socially disadvantaged. That, Stevens concludes, is the next urgent task of social policy.

"For me, personally, the book constituted an invitation to rethink the relationship -- warts and all -- among the benevolent, charitable, and business missions of the hospital, while at the same time disabusing me of my inclination to cite history to support or defend a view I might otherwise have preferred to hold." -- Merlin K. DuVal, M.D., Senior Vice President, Samaritan Health Service, Phoenix, Arizona

"This book is beautifully written... and is must reading for anyone involved in the current debate on health policy. It will also make delightful reading for those who merely wish to view the shifting social andeconomic climate in modern America, as seen from the perspective of the hospital." -- New England Journal of Medicine

The final volume of Catanzaro's benchmark series on building a veterinary practice, this is also the series' keystone, providing the ways and means to keep a veterinary business going and growing under all sorts of circumstances. Creativity is the key to healthy change, and it is also the key to Catanzaro's approach as he helps the vet and clinic staff to "colour outside the lines"--to think in new ways that will enhance procedures and employee morale in any practice.

A noted veterinary practice management consultant, Catanzaro draws on his own extensive experience and that of other consultants, writers, and speakers to bring together the essential tools for individual brainstorming and organisational restructuring. Liberally illustrated with examples, tables, chats, and forms, and full of exercises for stimulating creativity, this volume focuses on hiring strategies and job redesign, establishing leadership and building a client base, learning and teaching new techniques, and, last but not least, money matters. It offers advice and insights on a wide range of particulars, from marketing gimmicks to computerised medical records to fiscal shelters. Culminating and capping an indispensable series, it will be essential to the ongoing success of any veterinary practice.

Fortress NHS A Philosophical Review of the National Health Service David Seedhouse University of Auckland, New Zealand and University of Liverpool, UK There are many books on the politics, history and sociology of the NHS which argue that all is not well. These books discuss the enormous complexity of the health service, assess the power of different professions and individuals and address apparently insurmountable administration difficulties. Most conclude by suggesting improvements to the various processes of the NHS, but leave its philosophy intact and unexamined. Fortress NHS takes a different path and reflects deeply upon the purpose of the health service. What inspires the NHS? What is its philosophy? What are its fundamental principles? Why are they so important? And do they hold up to careful scrutiny? This ingenious book tackles each of these questions and in so doing examines the strength of the philosophical foundations of the NHS. Fortress NHS is the sixth in a series of books from David Seedhouse, each of which applies philosophical analysis to the everyday problems of health service policy and practice. They are designed to be of interest to all those interested in health care including medical and health care professionals, health service economists and managers, social scientists, health service researchers, nurses and the informed lay person. Read together, the series constitutes a unique investigation into health care provision and offers numerous concrete proposals for philosophically justified reform. Also by David SeedhousePractical Medical Ethics David Seedhouse and Lisetta LovettMay 1992Liberating Medicine David SeedhouseMarch 1991Changing Ideas in Health CareDavid Seedhouse and Alan CribbJune 1989Ethics: The Heart of Health Care David SeedhouseJuly 1988Health: The Foundations for Achievement David SeedhouseSeptember 1986

Properly addressing a crisis requires more than just guesswork and a reaction; it requires a properly structured approach supported by good information. With the rapid evolution of information systems and information technology, including hardware, software, the internet, and communications capabilities, there are abundant opportunities to apply these technology capabilities and resources to support and improve responses to and management of crisis situations. Approaches to crisis response and management include the design, development, implementation, and application of systematic methodologies on how to respond, as well as how to apply information systems to enhance and extend responses to crises. Information Technology Applications for Crisis Response and Management provides a multi-disciplinary perspective on current and cutting-edge research exploring and extending our understanding of the use of information systems and information technology to support responses to crises of all kindsOCoeaccidental, intentional, and acts of nature. The chapters in this book focus on the design, development, implementation, use, and evaluation of information system technologies and methodologies to support crisis response and management, as well as technology management-related issues for crisis response and management. While highlighting technical, cognitive, organizational, and human-focused issues within the field, this book is ideal for policymakers, IT specialists, government officials, crisis response teams, managers, practitioners, researchers, academicians, and students interested in the use of information technology and information systems to support diverse types of crises.

During emergency situations, society relies upon the efficient response time and effective services of emergency facilities that include fire departments, law enforcement, search and rescue, and emergency medical services (EMS). As such, it is imperative that emergency crews are outfitted with technologies that can cut response time and can also predict where such events may occur and prevent them from happening. The safety of first responders is also of paramount concern. New tools can be implemented to map areas of vulnerability for emergency responders, and new strategies can be devised in their training to ensure that they are conditioned to respond efficiently to an emergency and also conscious of best safety protocols. Improving the Safety and Efficiency of Emergency Services: Emerging Tools and Technologies for First Responders addresses the latest tools that can support first responders in their ultimate goal: delivering their patients to safety. It also explores how new techniques and devices can support first responders in their work by addressing their safety, alerting them to accidents in real time, connecting them with medical experts to improve the chances of survival of critical patients, predicting criminal and terrorist activity, locating missing persons, and allocating resources. Highlighting a range of topics such as crisis management, medical/fire emergency warning systems, and predictive policing technologies, this publication is an ideal reference source for law enforcement, emergency professionals, medical professionals, EMTs, fire departments, government officials, policymakers, IT consultants, technology developers, academicians, researchers, and students.