New Brunswick is a small Maritime province in Canada bordering on Maine. With just 700,000 people, the population is clustered in small cities and towns. Nevertheless, tragedies happen here as they do elsewhere and there is a need to be prepared. The National Association of School Psychologists (NASP) had developed PREPaRE, a curriculum founded…

Objective: It is essential for health care professionals to be prepared for a bioterrorist attack or other public health emergency. We sought to determine how well biodefense and emerging infectious disease research information was being disseminated to rural health care providers, first responders, and public health officials. Methods:…

Now more than ever, campus safety is of paramount importance. A reliable emergency mass notification system is one way to ensure the safety of constituents, and Brandeis University (MA) recently invested in a system that does the job. In this article, the author interviews John Turner, the school's director of networks and systems. Turner…

The typical response of organizations dealing with external uncertainty is to develop strategies to adapt to the situation and focus on regaining a stable state. A crucial element of responding successfully to external uncertainties is to identify changes in knowledge needs within core organizational processes. This paper discusses the changing…

The School Health Policies and Programs Study (SHPPS) is a national survey periodically conducted to assess school health policies and programs at the state, district, school, and classroom levels. This brief presents data on crisis preparedness, response, and recovery as it pertains to health services, mental health and social services, nutrition…

When Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast in August 2005, Southeastern Louisiana University was spared the brunt of the storm and was fortunate that most structures on campus remained intact. However, the storm still affected the campus for weeks. This article reflects on the experiences of university leaders and facility managers as they provided…

In light of incidents like the Virginia Tech massacre, there is growing need for scholarship on emergency management in higher education. Traditional literature has typically focused on locating breakdowns, blame, and accountability by questioning whether emergency responses evidence departures from protocol. Yet, experience teaches that adhering…

"Lessons Learned" is a series of publications that are a brief recounting of actual school emergencies and crises. This "Lessons Learned" issue focuses on an incident involving several cases of Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) at a rural high school. MRSA is a specific strain of Staphylococcus aureus bacteria (often called staph)…

A university president's worst nightmare can take any number of forms. The lone shooter run amok on campus. The freight-train sound of a tornado bearing down on a dormitory. A river cresting its banks, about to flood a college town. From robberies and assaults to fires and chemical spills, the list goes on and on. Campus security and safety…

The PREPaRE Crisis Prevention and Intervention Curriculum is the first comprehensive curriculum developed and offered by NASP. PREPaRE's purpose is to build the capacity of schools at the local level to prevent, prepare for, respond to, and recover from crisis events. Embedded in this primary goal is the ability to foster systems change consistent…

Modern organizations constantly face unparalleled changes and uncertainty in the competitive world, thus requiring strategic planning to mitigate crisis conditions. Underscoring crisis plans are performance interventions that prepare employees, technological systems, and the organizational culture to effectively respond to a crisis event. However,…

This issue of ERCMExpress provides direction to schools and school districts in "Creating Emergency Management Plans." To ensure the safety of students, faculty and staff, schools and school districts nationwide should create comprehensive, multi-hazard emergency management plans that focus on the four phases of emergency management--…

This brochure contains basic information on crisis planning. It includes information on: (1) preparedness; (2) mitigation and prevention; (3) recovery; (4) response; and (5) Preparing schools for a crisis.

Describes how organizations and trainers are preparing for the unexpected in the wake of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. Includes to-do lists, emergency procedures, and additional resources. (JOW)