ACT for Sandy Hook

“What can I do to help?” I understand and share the heartfelt desire to do something to heal our grieving society in the wake of the massacre of children and educators in Sandy Hook, and to ensure that such a tragedy never happens again. 

But, the unfortunate truth we know as nurses is that tragedy happens every day. It happens, as President Obama said, “in small towns and big cities all across America.”

What can nurses do to help? ACT. Advocacy, Clinical Judgment, and Transformation.

Advocacy: Our professional organizations must uniformly advocate for

·         full-time school nurses, who are often the first to identify and work with troubled students

·         fixing a mental health system that is uneven, complex, and ineffectively isolated from other areas of healthcare

·         more federal funding devoted to research on mental health, violence prevention, and healthcare disparities.

Clinical Judgment: From wars abroad to violence on our on soil, nurses so very often are the first to recognize and respond to crises, to diagnose pain, to alleviate suffering, provide comfort to those who are grieving, and to decrease other risks. And, as nurses deliver more primary care, we will be in key positions to identify those who need mental healthcare and to help patients navigate the health system to get the care they need. Therefore, use your clinical judgment to join the national and global debates and dialogues about guns that cause violence, pain, suffering, and death.

Transformation: Our education and experiences give us insights that are important to share as our country considers real change. The Affordable Care Act places nurses front and center in the U.S. healthcare system. We can own our power and lead the charge for policy changes that will create a more stable, more healthful, more peaceful society.  We must amplify our voices in the national conversation on the factors that lead to violence and how to prevent it.

I close with the words of President Obama: “If there is even one step we can take to save another child, or another parent, or another town, from the grief that has visited Tucson, and Aurora, and Oak Creek, and Newtown -- and communities from Columbine to Blacksburg before that -- then surely we have an obligation to try.”

ACT. Let that be our resolve in 2013. 

For those who need immediate assistance with trauma, go to the following website www.apna.org/TraumaticEvents for help.