Patients of gun violence vs others

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In light of recent shooting incidents, I feel like if there is anyone who can have the most influence on the gun issue, you guys are because you are directly involved with patients.

In your experience, how many patients you usually take care of are victims of gun violence? Are there more or less of them compared to victims of natural causes, traffic accidents, and domestic violence?

Thank you, everyone.

Specializes in ACNP-BC, Adult Critical Care, Cardiology.

The American College of Surgeons maintains the National Trauma Data Bank. The last report on their website is from 2016.

https://www.facs.org/quality-programs/trauma/tqp/center-programs/ntdb/docpub

On this pdf file of the report, page 39 shows incidence per mechanism of injury with firearm being the 6th most common:

https://www.facs.org/-/media/files/quality-programs/trauma/ntdb/ntdb-annual-report-2016.ashx?la=en

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Specializes in Mental Health, Gerontology, Palliative.

My sister is an ED consultant. She was working in the department on the day of May 15 when a white supremacist killed 51 people and wounded a further 50.

She said it at the time the bullets used by the shooter were hollow points which caused much more damage than other bullets. People left para and tetraplegics by gun fragments

It was hard for most of us to get our heads around the fact that 1 person caused so much death.

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I see gun violence every day being at a level one trauma working the trauma icu. What do I see more, motorcycle crashes or gsw’s? I see motorcycle crashes way more.

We see our fair share of gun shot wounds. We have an especially tragic one right now. But I see way, way more other traumas.

While these mass shootings are very tragic, very, very tragic, they are a drop in the bucket compared with other types of trauma. I’d like to see zero tolerance for drinking and driving, helmets required, and other safety measures in place.

I also live in a major metropolitan city that sees plenty of gun violence.

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Off-topic posts have been edited/removed.

This topic has nothing to do with gun control.

The topic as stated in the OP:

Quote

... how many patients you usually take care of are victims of gun violence? Are there more or less of them compared to victims of natural causes, traffic accidents, and domestic violence?? ...

If you want to discuss gun control, etc., you may go to the Break Room. https://allnurses-breakroom.com/

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Specializes in Adult and pediatric emergency and critical care.
9 hours ago, vetpharmtech said:

In light of recent shooting incidents, I feel like if there is anyone who can have the most influence on the gun issue, you guys are because you are directly involved with patients.

In your experience, how many patients you usually take care of are victims of gun violence? Are there more or less of them compared to victims of natural causes, traffic accidents, and domestic violence?

Thank you, everyone.

I've worked from level 1 to level IV. Middle of downtown to the edge of the suburbs. I've worked in a freestanding pediatric hospital and combined medical centers.

I've had far more stabbings than shootings. I've seen far more violence using things that are not guns than those that were. Almost all of the gunshot victims I've taken care of were either shot by law enforcement (usually from pointing a gun at the cops), shot while committing a felony (buying drugs, selling drugs, had a weapon and were threatening violence, and so on), or shot themselves on accident (almost always someone who wasn't allowed to have a gun in the first place).

I've taken care of many times more NATs and CSAs (each) than kids who were shot or stabbed (combined).

The vast majority of major trauma that I've cared for are from motor vehicle accidents (including things like auto vs per and ATV rollovers), skiing/snowboarding accidents, people who have physically beat each other, and self inflicted knife wounds. I don't know the exact numbers bit I would guess gun shots makes up less than half a percent, most of those being the aforementioned people who didn't get shot under innocent circumstances.

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3 hours ago, PeakRN said:

I've worked from level 1 to level IV. Middle of downtown to the edge of the suburbs. I've worked in a freestanding pediatric hospital and combined medical centers.

I've had far more stabbings than shootings. I've seen far more violence using things that are not guns than those that were. Almost all of the gunshot victims I've taken care of were either shot by law enforcement (usually from pointing a gun at the cops), shot while committing a felony (buying drugs, selling drugs, had a weapon and were threatening violence, and so on), or shot themselves on accident (almost always someone who wasn't allowed to have a gun in the first place).

I've taken care of many times more NATs and CSAs (each) than kids who were shot or stabbed (combined).

The vast majority of major trauma that I've cared for are from motor vehicle accidents (including things like auto vs per and ATV rollovers), skiing/snowboarding accidents, people who have physically beat each other, and self inflicted knife wounds. I don't know the exact numbers bit I would guess gun shots makes up less than half a percent, most of those being the aforementioned people who didn't get shot under innocent circumstances.

Thank you. This is very enlightening.

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Specializes in Geriatrics, Dialysis.

Makes me glad I work in a relatively low violent crime area where every gun shot wound is newsworthy. I read a short news article that there were 74 gun shot injuries, not sure how many were fatalities in Chicago last weekend. That news was sadly overshadowed by the mass shootings in El Paso and Dayton that happened around the same time. I know Chicago is a big city but 74 gunshot victims in 2 days sounds pretty extreme to me even for an area of the city that is considered high crime risk. Part of the news article said the closest hospital to the area the violence was centered in had to close to all incoming traumas and go on divert as they were overwhelmed with gunshot victims. That must've been a horrible weekend at work.

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12 hours ago, LovingLife123 said:

I see gun violence every day being at a level one trauma working the trauma icu. What do I see more, motorcycle crashes or gsw’s? I see motorcycle crashes way more.

We see our fair share of gun shot wounds. We have an especially tragic one right now. But I see way, way more other traumas.

While these mass shootings are very tragic, very, very tragic, they are a drop in the bucket compared with other types of trauma. I’d like to see zero tolerance for drinking and driving, helmets required, and other safety measures in place.

I also live in a major metropolitan city that sees plenty of gun violence.

I can definitely see how those other things such as motorcycle accidents, and like another poster said stab wounds would be more common place.

The main difference in my mind is that while these other things are much more common place these types of things are usually accidents or one on one violence.

People who ride motorcycles are typically well aware of the risks they pose and make the choice to ride them anyway. A lot of times the person in on the bike is hurt, and for the majority of situations they are the main, or the only person in the accident who is hurt. Essentially they are choosing to do something that is risky and for the most part hurting themselves or putting themselves in danger.

Gun violence, especially the type we have seen lately is largely different, where something legal is used by someone to inflict mass fatalities on people who have no choice or awareness of the risk they are in.

Now I get it, we risk our lives everyday getting into our cars and driving to work or walking across busy street crossings, but that is different in that those are accidents and usually one or two people end up hurt or unfortunately dead. It doesn't usually kill 30 innocent people at a time in under a minute when you have a car accident or something similar.

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1 hour ago, kbrn2002 said:

Makes me glad I work in a relatively low violent crime area where every gun shot wound is newsworthy. I read a short news article that there were 74 gun shot injuries, not sure how many were fatalities in Chicago last weekend. That news was sadly overshadowed by the mass shootings in El Paso and Dayton that happened around the same time. I know Chicago is a big city but 74 gunshot victims in 2 days sounds pretty extreme to me even for an area of the city that is considered high crime risk. Part of the news article said the closest hospital to the area the violence was centered in had to close to all incoming traumas and go on divert as they were overwhelmed with gunshot victims. That must've been a horrible weekend at work.

This is the reason I feel in conflict about gun control. I have never owned a gun, but I respect the 2nd amendment to certain extent. I feel like I need to follow statistics albeit anecdotal from nurses.

These are health care professionals who have a deep sense of compassion for patients. They would have been aware how often they care for firearm related victims compared to victims from natural disasters.

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1 hour ago, Aliens05 said:

People who ride motorcycles are typically well aware of the risks they pose and make the choice to ride them anyway. A lot of times the person in on the bike is hurt, and for the majority of situations they are the main, or the only person in the accident who is hurt. Essentially they are choosing to do something that is risky and for the most part hurting themselves or putting themselves in danger.

Gun violence, especially the type we have seen lately is largely different, where something legal is used by someone to inflict mass fatalities on people who have no choice or awareness of the risk they are in.

I do wonder, though, if this statement is true of the majority of gun violence victims.

Prior to nursing school I worked in an inner city ED in a rough part of town. Nearly all of our shootings were gang-related rather than a single shooter targeting a mass group of people. Even though the latter (mass shooting events) tend to make the news, the former account for far more gun violence incidents.

I feel like you could make the argument that by being in a gang that practices gun violence, you're increasing your risk for getting shot (much like riding a motorcycle increases your risk of getting in a fatal accident).

I'd actually be curious to hear this same question posed to EMS or police officers; I feel like they'd probably see an even higher proportion of gun violence victims than nursing (since the trauma in the ED is diluted out by the huge proportion of non-trauma ED cases like heart attacks, strokes, pain, etc.)

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9 minutes ago, adventure_rn said:

I do wonder, though, if this statement is true of the majority of gun violence victims.

Prior to nursing school I worked in an inner city ED in a rough part of town. Nearly all of our shootings were gang-related rather than a single shooter targeting a mass group of people. Even though the latter (mass shooting events) tend to make the news, the former account for far more gun violence incidents.

I feel like you could make the argument that by being in a gang that practices gun violence, you're increasing your risk for getting shot (much like riding a motorcycle increases your risk of getting in a fatal accident).

I'd actually be curious to hear this same question posed to EMS or police officers; I feel like they'd probably see an even higher proportion of gun violence victims than nursing (since the trauma in the ED is diluted out by the millions of other non-trauma ED cases like heart attacks, pain, etc.)

I absolutely agree that the mass shootings are the outlier. I am positive most gun victims are either accidental, one to one violence or suicide.

I feel like the legality of the type of guns available to the general public is the issue, not the fact that guns in general are legal. It is the type of guns that allow very quick mass casualty events to occur that I feel are the issue. I personally just do not understand why any one civilian needs legal and easy access to a weapon that can kill many tens, potentially hundreds of people in a matter of seconds to a minute or two.

If you watch the video advertisements for these types of weapons it basically comes off as advertising to consumers that these weapons will make you a badass and inflict maximum damage. I mean what are you hunting or protecting yourself from with these weapons, a hoard of zombies? I know people will disagree with me, but to me it just makes no logical sense for their place in society, especially considering the ease of access.

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In my Surgery/Trauma ICU, motor vehicle accidents and motorcycle accidents are the leading trauma type of admission. Falls count for the second biggest group. People fall off the roof while cleaning out their gutters, fall off ladders, even fall from standing can cause frail elderly people to really injure themselves.

Gunshot wounds are less common. Around half of them are self-inflicted (they tend to go to the neuro unit).

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