Practicing Evacuations 6/13/2018

Good Morning,

My morning ramblings are a little late today. Even my Door County Peanut Butter Crunch Coffee is delayed due to a long night at work.

One of the many hats I wear at work is the duty of Emergency Management Leader. I coordinate the disaster responses for the hospital and this week finds us practicing building evacuation techniques. As we all know not all patients are ambulatory and part of our drills is to practice taking people down flights of stairs to a safe exit. This means that we have to practice using a patient sled that employs a sling type strap and we lower the simulated patients down the stairs.

 

James 1:22-25 New International Version (NIV)

²² Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. ²³ Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like someone who looks at his face in a mirror ²⁴ and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. ²⁵ But whoever looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues in it—not forgetting what they have heard, but doing it—they will be blessed in what they do.

To make it seem real, the caregivers take turns lowering their co-workers down the stairs. They place their trust in some equipment and their friends. So to reach everyone we are conducting the training drills at various times of the day and night. Last night we trained from 1:AM until 3:AM. Thus I am a little tired and took some time to sleep a little longer today. I was able to catch a much needed three hours of sleep.

In each of the training sessions the first couple of times we lowered one of our co-workers, who is strapped into the sled and actually helpless to control their descent it has been slow and too clumsy. But after a couple of runs the evacuation runs smoother and quicker. Practice makes perfect. I will be doing this for another week at our medical center.

So what does that have to do with my blog? Like anything else, disaster management requires knowing what to do and then putting that knowledge into motion when needed, even if it is a drill.

It is the same thing in life, we can know all of the advice that is held within the Bible, but unless we put that knowledge into practice it is just wasted knowledge. People can often quote Scripture but fail to follow the directions it gives. They do not "Practice What They Preach".  The Bible has some advice on this practice also.

James 4:17 New King James Version (NKJV)

¹⁷ Therefore, to him who knows to do good and does not do it, to him it is sin.

Have a great day. Practice makes perfect.

Marty