Healthcare professionals are also speaking out. As care providers to individuals injured by guns, many see firsthand the immediate and long-term effects of gun-related injuries that can affect people long after the initial injury. “Physicians and all healthcare clinicians who have been dealing with the epidemic of firearms violence in general feel a sense of frustration and anger regarding the mindless and senseless loss of innocent lives,” said Myles Pensak, MD, executive vice president of the Triological Society and professor emeritus of otolaryngology–head and neck surgery at the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine. “As physicians, many of us strongly feel a professional responsibility in addressing this crisis in our country; furthermore, as citizens, we are confronted with issues of politics, ethics, cultural norms, and community values in navigating a profoundly complex and serious dilemma facing all of us,” he said.
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September 2022Physicians and Advocacy
What does it mean to address gun violence as a healthcare professional? For some, the role could include advocacy to change gun laws; for others, educating individuals and families about gun prevention measures; and for still others, screening individuals at a high risk of gun violence.
Katherine Hoops, MD, MPH, an assistant professor of pediatric critical care medicine at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore and a core faculty member in the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health’s Center for Gun Violence Solutions, cited a number of evidence-based tools to help clinicians address gun-related violence. (See the sidebar, “Gun Violence Prevention Resources.”) Among them are educational tools such as medical education curricula based on consensus- driven priorities for firearm injury prevention and CME-accredited modules, including clinically relevant firearm policies and extreme risk protective orders. Other efforts are geared toward providing clinicians with tools to screen patients who are at risk of violence or injury, refine counselling algorithms for firearm injury prevention among patients, create easily delivered printed educational materials, and implement community- and hospital-based violence prevention programs.
“From screening for depression and risk of suicide, to providing care for elderly adults with dementia, to counseling on safe firearm storage, to using trauma-informed approaches to care with connection to medical homes and community resources, and even to advocacy for evidence-based policies in their communities, clinicians are poised to make a profound impact on patients’ lives and their risk of firearm violence,” she said.
Some of these measures are geared toward healthcare providers working in critical care and emergency medicine, but specialists such as otolaryngologists also play a critical role in addressing gun violence.