AAR Sandy AAR for the Course

In the wake of Hurricane Sandy, the importance of this course becomes clearer than ever. Understanding the institutional supports for and barriers to effective emergency management is critical for all citizens. As Baldwin (2005) points out, healthcare specialists are particularly responsible for arming themselves with knowledge and preparedness. Knowing the principles, types, and forms of health management systems that exist enables healthcare leaders to change or improve those services. We become empowered by this knowledge, and the ability to inform public and institutional policy.

AAR for Sandy

Although it seemed like chaos at the time, the emergency response to Hurricane Sandy was and remains an overall success. Not enough time has elapsed since the event to judge it with perfect hindsight vision, but analysts are reporting that the FEMA response, coupled with local response efforts were aptly targeted, and dealt with problems in an efficient manner (Iverson, 2012). It has been impossible not to compare the AAR for Sandy with that of Hurricane...

Yet as Baldwin (2005) points out, healthcare personnel should remain wary that their skill sets are not up to the standards that will undoubtedly be required of us in the upcoming years. Disasters are, with nearly complete certainty getting worse and more frequent, too. "If it seems like disasters are getting more common, it's because they are. But some disasters seem to be affecting us in worse ways -- and not for the reasons you may think," (Ripley, 2008). What Ripley (2008) means is that storms themselves are not getting worse, necessarily. The earth has been ravaged by all sorts of natural disasters since the dawn of time, not to mention the various other disasters of human origin as well as disease. The difference is that population growth in coastal urban centers has risen to an alarming extent. With greater numbers of people in smaller, more vulnerable areas, disaster relief efforts are harder to conceptualize, strategize, and implement effectively. Perhaps that is the main…