Choosing a Medical Kit

Choosing a specific medical kit can be hard because there is so many different kits that all have such great quality and supplies that you need! But I would choose the Fundamentals kit by Adventure Medical Kits because it has everything you need in such great quality. The price for the Fundamentals kit is a little pricey, but when you think about it, it might be worth it in the long run. 

This is what the medical kit looks like, it is in the medium size range but if you look inside there is everything you need in an emergency.

 

If you look inside you will see that there is excellent pouches to protect all the supplies from getting damaged. It provides everything from bandages and medication to a CPR face shield. This kit can help you in a minor to even major emergency. 

So this is why I would choose the Fundamentals medical kid from Adventure Medical Kits. Personally I do not care if the price is $110 because this medical kit can save my life in an emergency.

Heat Transfer and Layering are Required for Outdoor Activities

You can be in serious danger if you are in harsh weather conditions without the right clothing on. Everybody should without a doubt know about these two essential subjects, because it is vital for your survival in the outdoors.

Layering and heat transfer both come together hand in hand. But first you need to know about heat transfer. The first focus is on “dead air space”. It does sound like a pretty weird subject but it is essential to understand this. Dead air space is simply when you are wearing two different types of materials and there is air trapped in between both resources. You need that air space to keep you warm in cold harsh weather conditions because you need air coming in AND out of the insulation for you to stay warm and to not perspire. Another subject in heat transfer is wind. Wind is an issue when trying to stay warm. If wind is passing through your clothing then there is no way you can keep warm. That is why a wind breaker jacket can be one of your layers to stay warm on windy weather conditions. MOISTURE!!! Ah!!! Another issue to sort out! The first thing I have to say is to NEVER EVER wear cotton materials in rainy or wet conditions because cotton will absorb water and take forever to dry. The Cotton will then feel very uncomfortable and heavy to wear. It will start to smell pretty bad as well. So as you can see, you would never want to wear cotton in wet weather conditions. Another issue with moisture getting into your layers is that you will never be able to contain heat inside your clothing. Therefore, wear waterproof materials instead of cotton materials.

I have already gotten into layering a little bit in the heat transfer section but there is much more to cover in this subject. There are 5 layer sections that you have to be aware of, underneath, wicking, clothing, insulation, and finally, the shell layer. The first two layers have to be relatively tighter around your skin then all the other layers. Again, all of these layers come hand in hand with each other. The underneath layer should wick away moisture that is penetrating in or out of your skin (sweat). The next layer (Wicking layer) should also wick away any moisture coming into your clothing. Next is the clothing layer which says what exactly it means in its name! The only thing you wear in this layer is just your everyday clothes. This clothing just acts as another layer to keep you warm. But make sure that this layer doesn’t fit too tight around your body because this layer should feel comfortable to you. The insulation layer has a very simple concept. The clothing you put on in this layer should be something like a fleece material that can insulate warmth against your body so you are not cold in harsh weather conditions. Last but not least is the shell layer which protects you from the sun, rain, and wind. So in this layer you can possibly wear a wind breaker if you know that you are going to be in windy weather conditions.

So as you can see heat transfer and layering are vital for your survival in harsh weather conditions.

The ICS stands for Incident Command System

The Incident Command System takes care of the aftermath of natural disasters and even more. They have to make an intricate plan as to how they are going to fix the problem that other citizens are in.

The Incident Commander oversees all that is going on in the system; everyone gives a status update to that person. There are three other officers right below the Incident Commander and they are the, Public Info, Liaison, and the safety officers. They all take care of different subjects in the organization. The Public Info Officer contacts the public media to let all of the citizens know a status update on what is going on for fixing whatever incident that happened. The Liaison Officer contacts other organizations that might give other means of help for the incident. Finally, the Safety Officer. Well you can probably guess what they do. The Safety Officer takes care of all the safety conditions there are in the certain incident that they are trying to fix.

That is not the only segment to the ICS. There are four other sections to this system. The names are Operations, Planning, Logistics, and lastly, the Finance/Admin section. Again, each section takes care of different areas of fixing a certain incident. The planning section thinks of the most efficient plan to solve the incident, while the Operations section carry’s out the plan into action. The logistics section takes care of any predicaments that are going on throughout the incident. The Finance/Admin section takes care of the costs and reimbursements. They have to pay for the citizens who become injured or sick from the incident.

So, that is what the Incident Command System is all about! As you can tell each section of the system is very important because if you don’t have the Planning section, how is the Operations Section supposed to carry out the plan that they don’t have?! Even in your own home you need the family that you live with to all work together in “the plan” to have a cool, calm environment without massive problems getting in the way of you being a family. Same in the ICS everyone at home has jobs to do so they all can work together on getting certain things done.

SAR

FEMA Urban SAR

FEMA doesn’t just rescue people from harmful situations; they risk their own lives to rescue other citizens to get them to safety. That is why I picked this SAR organization. Because they will work very hard to get the person(s) out of the harmful situation and brought to safety.

FEMA Urban SAR has a lot of responsibilities. They have to do a lot of other things before they even start saving the person(s). They, of course, have to figure out a strategic plan so they know what to do when they get to the situation, because you always want to be prepared. The main goal is to get the distressed person to safety. That is what they mainly need to do in this whole plan. While they make the plan they have to figure out what equipment they need and what people to deploy out to the situation. This is very important because you don’t want to bring the wrong equipment or the wrong people because then it will be more difficult to save the distressed person(s). One thing they have to make sure that they are not doing is, not injuring or producing more harm to the distressed person while they are rescuing them. They don’t want to make things worse they want to make things better.

Para Rescue

Parachuting down saving people?! That is one of the most unique ways that I have ever heard of! I actually haven’t heard that much about Para Rescue until now! That is one of the reasons why I picked this SAR organization, because it is a very unique and efficient way to safe people from a harmful situation. Another reason is because they risk their lives saving others.

Did you know Para Rescue is used in military combat? I didn’t know until I read about it! They have a lot of responsibilities when doing their job. Like for example, they have to rescue the distressed person(s) from the harmful situation, and bring them to a safe environment. They also have to do lots of training to be certified to be able to rescue people through Para Rescue. Any rescue organization has to have some type training so they know what they are doing in real life situations.

Wildlife State of New Hampshire

Wildlife State of New Hampshire has to do intense training throughout all types of weather. They also train throughout storms. So practically they train through anything. That is one of the reasons why I like this SAR organization because they do all this training so that they absolutely positively know what they are doing in real life situations. Another reason is that they will do whatever it takes to rescue the distressed person(s) from the harmful situation.

One thing that Wildlife State of New Hampshire does is save hikers that are on foot that need help. So they need to learn different ways to navigate to the distressed person(s). They REALLY need to know how to navigate to them because they don’t want to get lost themselves because that is another problem that needs to be solved. They might be able to use a GPS, if not, maybe a compass. So they have to learn not just one way to navigate to the person(s) but they have to learn more than one way to navigate to the person(s).