Emergency Management practitioners and academicians have worked for over two decades to professionalize and standardize the EM field. This article presents findings from a Capstone Project at FEMA’s Emergency Management Institute’s National Emergency Management Executive Academy, focusing on the importance of Next Generation Core Competencies for EM professionals in the face of evolving challenges.

By Kimberly Campbell, Sarah Custer, Mary Jo Flynn-Nevins, Alex Schubek, Robert Granzow III, and Kristy Moore

Healthcare workers in Emergency Departments and Emergency Medical Services are at particularly high risk for occupationally acquired infectious diseases due to their close contact with infected patients and insufficient protection, resources, training, and compliance. This article stresses the importance of hand hygiene as a key strategy to reduce these risks and recommends implementing multimodal strategies to improve hand hygiene compliance, which is vital for protecting workers and strengthening the healthcare system’s resilience.

By Ryan S. Houser, Alexander Linder, and Erin Sorrell