Who's Your Back-up?

In the world of work, it is critical to have effective plans for every type of emergencies that may happen.  This only works if all staff have been educated, drills occur, and local fire, police, and other services have participated.  As much as we dreaded our "Annual Competencies" in all the health care settings where I worked, they were useful to remind us of what we had to do.  I found that every year there was something new.

In my first job at a nursing home/rehab facility, I was the staff educator.  One morning, we had meetings for each and every staff member for Fire Safety.  I wanted to emphasize the seriousness of paying attention and knowing exactly what to do for a suspected or actual fire.  I borrowed a body bag from the local coroner's office.  I stuffed it with rags to look like a body was in it.  One person actually was fearful and asked me, "Is there a real person in there?"  I told the staff, "This could be YOU or me or one of our residents here or one of your family members if you don't know what to do if there's a fire!"

In the afternoon, the local fire department was kind enough to come to the facility's large parking lot, set a small fire in a big metal drum,  and let each and every staff person use a fire extinguisher to put it out.  (We had exactly 100 residents and over 100 staff!)  You need to know that immediately in back of this parking lot was a large cow pasture - I doubt if this would be possible in a city setting.

The very NEXT DAY, I kid you not, there was a small fire in the kitchen! A young woman immediately grabbed a fire extinguisher and put it out!  Of course, the fire department was called to investigate and make sure the fire was totally out.  No one got hurt and there was only minor damage.  The young lady thanked me for "making her learn" how to put out the fire. She had never before touched a fire extinguisher.

If you have a child or children in a sports or school activities, you know all about back-up carpooling!  Some of my children loved for me to chauffeur them and their friends around town.  Once in a great while, I had other plans. I told them to get a ride with one of their friends.  Oh, no, they didn't want to do that!  So I told them, "I've driven your friends around, I'm sure their mom or dad wouldn't mind if you came along this time.

The point is, for nearly everything we're involved in, we need someone to substitute if we can't work or drive someone around or do a specific activity.  This is useful!  Think about your life. . . do you have a person you trust to back you up in everything?

Lord God, you guide us, you lead us, you support us, you really are our ultimate 'back-up' person.  You give us the courage to ask others to help us out as we are willing to help them. Thank You!