{"id":13304,"date":"2018-11-09T16:13:39","date_gmt":"2018-11-09T21:13:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/feminem.org\/?p=13304"},"modified":"2018-11-09T16:13:39","modified_gmt":"2018-11-09T21:13:39","slug":"well-within-our-lane-firearm-injury-is-a-public-health-issue","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/feminem.org\/2018\/11\/09\/well-within-our-lane-firearm-injury-is-a-public-health-issue\/","title":{"rendered":"Well Within Our Lane: Firearm Injury is a Public Health Issue"},"content":{"rendered":"
The National Rifle Association sent out a tweet November 7th with a link to an article from their website titled – \u201cSurprise: Physician Group Rehashes Same Tired Gun Control Policies\u201d. The tweet said that \u201csomeone\u201d should tell the doctors to \u201cstay in their lane\u201d. The article itself takes issue with a position paper <\/span>publication<\/span><\/a> by the American College of Physicians (ACP) on reducing firearm injuries and deaths in the United States. The number 1 position in that paper is:<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cThe American College of Physicians recommends a public health approach to firearms-related violence and the prevention of firearm injuries and deaths.\u201d<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n It is clear that the NRA does not see gun violence and firearm injury as a public health issue. In fact, talking about the public health crisis that is firearm injury research is precisely a public health issue, and definitely within the lane of doctors.<\/span><\/p>\n It has occurred to many that the NRA, and perhaps the greater public does not realize what it is that doctors, nurses, and other medical providers do when it comes to the medical, surgical, and social treatment of gun violence. And because of this lack of awareness, they do not realize what exactly falls within our lane.<\/span><\/p>\n They do not see the doctors and nurses gowning and gloving head to toe, mentally preparing for the arrival of a person. They are not witness to our life saving interventions of chest tubes placed, releasing liters of blood onto the floors or chests cracked open and pericardial sacs explored hoping to find the source of catastrophic bleeding — just to give the person a chance to go to the operating room, to face hours of surgery to repair organs and sew up holes, all which were damaged within seconds from bullets. Similarly, they do not feel their bodies go numb as their lips move to reveal the news of the death of people to families, who crumple in agony and shock. Finally, they do not see the medical staff cry alone, after the patients have long departed for the operating room or the morgue, that time when finally the role of doctor and nurse can be put to the side, and the humanity in all of us can mourn the senseless tragedy that came upon the person.<\/span><\/p>\n