Trauma comes without warning, and often causes death or disability to community members in their prime of life, with the highest toll of "Years of Productive Life Lost". Trauma and Injury are predictable, preventable, and disruptive public health concerns, and it is time the nursing professionals of this global community unite to address this reality. So many times the frustration of not being functionally able to create seamless systems of trauma prevention and treatment hinge on financial limitations and coordination of scarce resources. Scarcity mentality is a sad reality, and financial insecurity sucks energy and hope from community members the way a traumatic injury sucks life. "Stone Soup" mentality has been one amazingly helpful way to make much of little, and to literally feed hope to grow from idea to improved outcomes for one largely rural, agricultural state. The "Rural Reality" of greater than twice as many deaths from injury spurred three Veteran Emergency Staff Nurses to set out on the path from disparity and discussion to set up a pathway one trudging step at a time to build a road to trauma systems improvement.
Nursing professionals are a common denominator at all levels of care, and through networking, collaboration, and coalition-building these Sigma Theta Tau Veteran Emergency Nurses gathered information, shared a dream, and have come to participate in a realized creation of a truly INclusive, Comprehensive, Statewide Trauma System from the grassroots to the global level of coordination.
We wish to share our experience and our "recipe" for "Stone Soup-What to Make When Between a Rock and Hard Place: The Creation of the Trauma System to Share and Care to Get Us There". We invite the audience to share our recipe, join the discussion and development, and network to "Get E.R. Done" from the roadside to the boardroom, from the Grassroots to the Global level.
