Laura Motes - Tips For Preparing Your Home For A Flood

Laura Motes lives in rural Northeastern Georgia and is keenly aware that her home is in an area that is at risk of flooding, should weather conditions become particularly adverse. As such, she has taken a number of measures to prepare her home in case of such an emergency. These pointers will prove useful to anybody who is in a similar predicament.

 Establish An Evacuation Route
You should always plan for the worst possible outcome when considering flooding, which means that your priority should be you and whoever else lives in the home. As such, when preparing your plan, you need to map out an evacuation route that will take you out of the at-risk area as quickly as possible. You may want to conduct a few drills as well, to ensure you keep the route clear in your mind.

Establish Contacts
It is important that people are aware of your situation should you ever have to deal with a flood, so it is a good idea to establish a primary contact who you will be able to call in cases of emergency. This person should ideally be out of the area and can act as a central point of contact for all of your family members and friends so you can focus more of your time on dealing with the flood.

Pack Supplies
By keeping an emergency kit of supplies handy, Laura Motes notes that you will be able to survive should a flood leave you stranded. Pack long-lasting food, some basic first aid equipment and some useful equipment, such as multipurpose tools and portable phone chargers.
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Laura Motes - Tips For ImproLaura ing Your Bedside Manner

As she prepares to start her studies in nursing at Georgia Regents University, Laura Motes has been putting a lot of thought into the skills that she will need to develop in order to excel in the role. The bedside manner displayed by medical professionals is crucial when offering care to patients, so try to keep the following in mind if you work in a medical role or have aspirations to do so in the future.

                                                                                         

Focus On The Patient

If you appear distracted when talking to your patients, the odds are high that they are going to be less likely to talk to you and provide information that you may need to provide treatment. This is because you will be giving off the impression that you have more important things to do, rather than speaking to the patient. Pay attention and deal with distractions after the conversation.

Establish Common Ground

By creating a personal connection with the patient, within the confines of professionalism, you can have conversations that extend beyond the treatment that your patients are undergoing. This is useful for building trust in the relationships that you have with patients, making them more likely to talk to you when you need information from them.

Keep Thing Simple

Laura Motes understands that many patients will be intimidated by hospital settings, especially if they are dealing with a new condition that needs treatment. By using too much medical lingo you run the risk of further confusing patients and making them feel even less in control. Keep things simple and explain issues in words patients will understand.

Laura Motes - Tips For Preventing Underage Alcohol Sales

During her time serving with the Athens-Clarke County Police Department, Laura Motes spent three years as part of the Alcohol Compliance Unit/Vehicles For Hire Unit, during which time she worked with the Georgia Department of Revenue to deal with alcohol license violations, while also placing much of her focus on the issue of underage drinking. There are a number of things that premises that sell alcohol can do in order to remain compliant and ensure they don’t end up selling alcohol to minors, including all of the following.

                                          

Always Check ID

It may seem like a simple tip, but many new store owners or employees often end up becoming incompliant because they have assumed that the people they are serving are of legal drinking age. If you have any doubt at all about a person’s age, ask to see some ID. Be wary of any customers who make a big fuss about showing ID and don’t give into any pressure that may be placed on you by people who haven’t brought a form of identification along. You should also improve your knowledge of the various forms of ID that people can use to purchase alcohol, so that you are abler to spot fakes.

Train Employees

Your store’s employees are essentially representatives of your premises, so if they make mistakes or purposefully sell alcohol to minors the responsibility will usually fall on you. As such, you need to make sure that you are careful when hiring new employees and that you have a rigorous training program in place. Put special emphasis on the consequences of selling alcohol to minors and try to train employees in the best ways to spot when an underage person might be trying to acquire alcohol.

Keep Alcohol Separate From Soft Drinks

In many cases, minors may pick up alcoholic beverages, particularly those commonly referred to as “alcopops,” by mistake if they are on display next to soft drinks or other beverages. As such, it is good practice to create a display specifically designed for alcohol. It may also be a good idea to have that display somewhere that is in the line of sight of employees, so that they can keep an eye on any suspicious behavior.

Assess Groups

If a group of people attempts to purchase alcohol from your establishment, Laura Motes notes that it is important to examine everybody in the collective. In some cases, somebody of age may try to purchase alcohol for minors who are with them, so if you have any suspicions that this is happening you should ask to see the IDs of every individual. Try to keep an eye out for awkward body language, such as a member of the group who is fidgeting or purposefully avoiding eye contact.

Laura Motes - The Characteristics of Good Police Officers

Laura Motes served with the Athens-Clarke County Police Department for 21 years, spending 10 of those years as a Police Sergeant in the Uniform Patrol Division in West Precinct. She achieved career progression because she worked hard to develop on a professional level, in addition to having the many attributes that a person needs in order to be a successful police officer. If you are interested in a career in the police force, you need to have, or develop, the following characteristics to stand the highest possible chance of success.

Laura Motes

 

• A Thirst For Knowledge

At no point during your career as a police officer should you allow your knowledge to stagnate. What you learn during your basic training should be treated as a foundation for your development, rather than the end of it. During your career, you will be presented with many opportunities to train various skills, so consider your career goals and make sure to select courses that will bring you closer to achieving them. Furthermore, keep your eyes and ears open at all times, so that you can learn from those who have more experience than you.

• Confidence

You must be able to demonstrate an air of confidence, even when you are approaching risky situations. This is crucial when working with members of the public, as you will be taking on the role of authority figure. As such, a lack of confidence may lead to people doubting what you have to say or not trusting that you will do the things you claim you will. However, an important caveat to this quality is that you don’t allow yourself to descend into arrogance. Temper your confidence by recognizing that you always have room to develop, no matter how experienced you are.

• Resilience

Police work offers a wide range of challenges, many of which will test your patience as well as your abilities. It is important that you develop a thick skin and don’t take the emotional reactions of people that you encounter too seriously. Allowing the words of others, particularly those involved in crimes, to get under your skin could lead to undesirable reactions that damage cases or lead to misconduct in the field.

• Physical Fitness

Laura Motes has always focused on her physical fitness and she ensures that she eats well and engages in activities that improve her conditioning, such as long-distance running. Good police officers all have the same focus, as they must stay in top condition to stand the highest chance of successfully dealing with potential criminals. Focus on strength training, so that you can subdue people if the situation calls for it, but also ensure your cardiovascular conditioning is maintained in case you need to engage in on-foot chases.

Laura Motes - On Training for a 5K

Laura Motes is a former police officer, a future nurse, and a personal health enthusiast. Part of her job involved staying in shape during her 20 years as a law enforcement officer, and she still takes the basic building blocks of personal health—exercise and diet—very seriously. In this vein, she has taken to trail running and competitive distance racing in her community near Watkinsville, Georgia. Motes trained herself for her first 5K several years ago, and she has a few pointers for those wanting to do the same:

 

• Give yourself plenty of time. Laura Motes is very physically fit, but when she was just starting to train for her first 5K race, she gave herself nine weeks to prepare. Most beginner’s programs recommend at least seven weeks of training and preparation before a competition. This is to give your body time to adjust to its new routines and help prevent injury.
• Balance running, resting, and walking. Laura Motes recommends to all beginners to work their way up to fast times over five kilometers by incorporating periods of running, of course, but also walking and resting to avoid injury while still training hard.
• Vary your schedule. For many of the same reasons why beginners should mix in periods of walking, running, and resting, those training for a 5K competition should also vary their running schedules. This means running longer distances at a slower pace three days per week, then four, while also training lightly some weeks as well.

Laura Motes helps her friends train whenever she can. She has competed in several marathons in addition to shorter races.
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Laura Motes - Fervent Supporter of the ASPCA

Laura Motes grew up with animals all around her in her parents’ home in rural Georgia. She knows how to properly care for and treat them and she wants everyone to have the same knowledge and caring nature that she does. Unfortunately, the United States is still a long way from being completely educated of the proper way to take care of domesticated animals. Pets still go neglected and get abandoned all the time. Motes, a former police officer and current nursing student, wanted to join the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA).

The ASPCA has two main causes that it as an organization works hard to fight for: the end of animal homelessness and the end of animal cruelty. Laura Motes works closely with her local animal shelters near her home in Watkinsville, Georgia, but across the country animal shelters are routinely stretched thin because their budgets just don’t do enough to place animals in good homes. With 2.7 million animals being euthanized in the United States every year, the ASPCA works to provide alternatives to euthanasia for shelters throughout the country. The ASPCA also works to help abused animals find new homes and to educated people about the causes and effects of animal cruelty in our society, as well as the signs to watch for. Laura Motes is a vocal advocate of all of these issues.

Laura Motes plans on beginning her Master’s degree in Nursing in the fall of 2016 at Georgia Regents University.
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Laura Motes - Career Progression from Law Enforcement Officer to Nurse

Laura Motes isn’t a nurse yet. She has completed all of the prerequisites to begin her Master’s degree in nursing from Georgia Regents University and plans on starting classes in the fall of 2016. She is prepared to enter the medical profession on the strength of her sense of duty to her community and her experience working for the Athens Regional Medical Center and Managed Medical Transport. Motes has always been committed to helping her community by keeping it safe as a police officer, now she hopes to help the community by keeping the people in it healthy.

Laura Motes spent 20 years working for the Athens-Clarke County Police Department. She started as a patrol officer in the Athens area, helping to ensure that crime is prevented whenever possible and that the streets and residents of the area are as safe as possible. Motes left the police force as a Sergeant in the West Precinct administration. She helped coordinate crime scene investigations, manage office personnel and officers on the street, and work with department leadership to ensure that all rules and regulations are being followed by all officers on the streets at all times.

Laura Motes then left the department because she wanted a more hands-on experience. She found said experience while working for six months with Managed Medical Transport and the Athens Regional Medical Center. Motes learned much from her time there, including how to serve and assist doctors, physicians, and other medical professionals in their duties and responsibilities to their patients with all kinds of medical conditions and ailments. She plans on using this experience during her studies as a Master’s degree candidate at Georgia Regents University in the fall of 2016.
                                              

Laura Motes works hard to keep herself in shape and healthy. Her passion recently has been distance runs of five kilometers or more. She has competed in several 5Ks in the area in the past and she plans on continuing her training to run marathons in the future. Motes hopes that her expertise as a nurse will put her in a position to help instill healthy habits in patients that could prevent serious medical conditions like heart disease and more. With too many Americans suffering from preventable diseases like adult-onset diabetes and obesity, especially in rural Georgia, where she lives, the more healthy habits she can instill in people around her community, the better.

Laura Motes believes that her calling is in the local healthcare system because she cares about the health and life of everyone around her in her community. She has always been there for her neighbors, protecting them from crime and investigating. She also helped keep the police force itself honest during her time in the Athens-Clarke County Police Department, reporting on alleged incidents of officer misconduct and other issues frequently besetting all police departments around the world.