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| Jane-Alexandra Krehbiel, Author of Rational Preparedness:The Blog and Rational Preparedness:A Primer to Preparedness, 2012 |
I came to preparedness in 1981, the result of graduating with a new nursing degree and then passing licensure as a registered nurse. At the time, registered nurses needed to start discharge planning from the time a patient was admitted to the hospital. Part of discharge planning was how such a patient, on discharge would survive a normal emergency. For example, if a patient with ALS went home on a portable ventilator, how would he survive either a failure of the ventilator, a power outage, or other emergency. Before a patient with a long term care or equipment need could be discharged, this type of emergency planning needed to be completed. This type of planning also needed to be done on new diabetics, those with special dietary needs, etc. Today, hospitals are no longer staffed so that this level of preparation can be done before discharge. Today, it is more often done by the employees of a medical supply equipment company, the patient's family, or even the nurse at their primary care physician. Sometimes, disaster planning for a newly discharged medically dependent patient isn't done at all. This was my first introduction to disaster preparedness.
In other positions I had afterward, other nurses and staff knew that post discharge disaster planning for patients was an interest of mine, and so I did a fair bit of it. After awhile, I created post discharge templates for different disease processes or for different equipment needs.
The fact is that we all need to make reasonable plans for normal disasters. Depending upon the location in which we live, ice storms, snowstorms, protracted power outages, flooding, earthquakes, forest fires are all possibilities, for all people, as well as those with a medical issue.
In the 1980s, I also became aware, through a patient family, that there were fairly large numbers of people who were preparing for an interruption in normal society where they believed that they would need to function for months or even longer without the benefits of normal society. Some of them were stockpiling food for seven years or more.
The problem is that although preparing for normal and reasonable disasters is an intelligent thing to do, particularly if you have a vulnerable medication or machine dependent family member. However, diverting large sums of your income to seven to ten years of food, saps money from the present day. It also takes money from your relative who might have a limited lifespan on Earth anyway.
It was at this time that the Rational Preparedness movement was born. My plan for Rational Preparedness, is that people make reasonable plans for the reasonable types of disasters that are most likely to occur within the next ten to fifteen years or so. It is not possible, or even financially expedient for most families to make disaster plans for all of the possibilities. My point was that purchasing gas masks for your children, and a pair of night vision googles for yourself, means that your children might not have the funds and opportunities that allow them to excel within the world as it exists today.
Therefore, my contribution to the preparedness community was the concept of Rational Preparedness. This means that each family should prepare for reasonable disasters that are most possible in the area in which one's family is living. Each family should make plans to "Shelter in Place" or "Evacuate Family" (including pets). Most every disaster will fall into either the category of sheltering in place or evacuation of family. If course, when people with medical issues, children, pets, farms or other issues consider this concept, it becomes more complicated. A diabetic child requires more supplies during an evacuation than a child without medical issues. Sheltering in place with a great grandparent who normally gets pharmacy supplies each week could be challenging when the power distribution and roadways are impaired for a time for some reason.
In 2011, I agreed to do a series of podcasts, using the name Rational Preparedness. The series was well received. I also began the blog Rational Preparedness, so that listeners could find not only a synopsis of the broadcast, but urls for the information I may have quoted or for suppliers for helpful items with regard to preparedness, both medical and otherwise.
Please know that in the years that both the blog and the book have existed, that I have never advertised anything that I have not personally used or can endorse fully. Unlike my copycats, I do not receive monies to endorse any preparedness or medical products whatsoever.
In 2012, my book, Rational Preparedness:A Primer to Preparedness was released. The concept of the book is that it would introduce families who did not have a prior history of knowledge with regard to the topic,not only an introduction for the need to make advance preparations for disasters, but to read the book quickly, and to begin a solid framework of family disaster planning within the space of one weekend.
Since the release of the book, work on the blog has continued. Rational Preparedness:The Blog now has more than a thousand votes as a favorite blog within the category of preparedness and survivalism.
It probably should not surprise me, but at least twice now a US based website, and a facebook group has formed using the name Rational Preparedness, which attempts to capitalize on my thirty years of experience in this field, on my book and on those who have followed me. The website also seeks to sell products and is therefore using the name for which I am known to sell goods that I may not endorse or approve. I have also been made aware that a foreign source has reproduced and is selling my book, for which I do not receive royalties.
When seeking reliable information, please make sure that not only the name Rational Preparedness appears, but my name and photograph appears on the work as well. Rational Preparedness: the blog and Rational Preparedness, the book, are both fully copywritten materials and the use of these intellectual properties without permission is a violation of United States copyright law.
Official Links:
Rational Preparedness Blog Official
Rational Preparedness Book Link for Official Copy of Book
Author of Rational Preparedness_Amazon Author Page
