Chapter President's message regarding Vegas shooting

Some of you watched the news during your shift last night. Others awoke to it today: A lone gunman has killed 59 and injured more than 500 during a country music concert in Las Vegas. By now, you may be back at work or back at home. Perhaps you have been receiving messages from friends and family in that area, or perhaps you are still waiting for one, good or bad. Our hearts go out to those we do and do not know. There is no making sense of it.

I spent the day teaching an advanced life support class. Updates were coming in all day. We talked about how especially difficult it is to be ICU and ER nurses and RCPs when the dead and injured coming through those doors may well be people we know, people we love. That is when the training kicks in. That is when you compartmentalize for a moment and focus on the tasks at hand: start the IV, hang the unit of blood, place the chest tube, open the belly in the OR and remove clots the size of basketballs looking for the arterial bleeder which you just need to get a clamp on to save a life.

Then you go home.

Then you have melt down.

Then you cry it out, hug your family, be thankful it wasn’t you, and feel guilty for that thankfulness.

Then you go back the next shift because you are a Critical Care Nurse. Because saving lives is what you do.

As Reno-Tahoe area nurses we offer our prayers and support to our brothers and sisters in Las Vegas.