When high profile shootings take place, there is some comfort in working toward improving firearm injury prevention and care in medical education. It means we have a place to put our sadness and energy.
SAFE's curriculum collaboration team had just returned from SAFE's fourth Firearm Injury Prevention and Care Curriculum Workshop - this time hosted by Oregon Health & Sciences University in Portland - when we heard about the school shooting in Bend, Oregon.
It is of some comfort to be able to DO SOMETHING and improve a public health system that may help avoid these preventable shootings, and SAFE is thrilled to be able to collaborate with many institutions.
For 3 hours on Friday, October 9 and 5 hours on October 10, it was inspiring to hear many different perspectives and to see the passion of medical students and clinicians in the Pacific Northwest.
Click the red button below for more information and to see all the action. (and to see the webpages we built!)
At SAFE, we will continue to work together to develop an effective and culturally responsive curriculum that will equip future physicians to address the multifaceted but addressable issue of firearm injury and death.
Dr. Joel Burnett from OHSU and Alliance for a SAFE Oregon, introducing the Advocacy Panel he moderated asking "Should healthcare providers learn about policy? Ideas of how to advocate for it within the curriculum".
Panelists are, left to right:
Ethan Murray - Giffords Law Center
Roy Moore - POIC (Portland Opportunities Industrialization Center)
Becca Teichman - OHSU Gun Violence Prevention Research Center
Dr. Katie Iossi (far left) from OHSU introducing the panel on Suicide Prevention with Focus on Veterans, learning about people who are directly impacted and what can be done to support them.
Panelists are, left to right:
Dr. Kyleanne Hunter, PhD - Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America (IAVA)
Angelina JT Stafford, MPH - Alliance for a Safe Oregon
Joe Bertagnolli - Portland, OR Veterans Affairs Health Care System
SAFE curricular workshop attendees including faculty, medical students, emergency physicians, community ally organizations and veterans support teams at OHSU.
Dr. James Bigham, SAFE Vice Chair and SAFE curriculum workshop moderator extraordinaire, talks about using curriculum's Family Medicine Public Health Elective as a way to sprinkle or weave the topic in.
"One of my biggest takeaways from this course is that firearm injury prevention is truly a public health issue, and small, evidence-based interventions like secure storage counseling can make a meaningful difference. I also learned how important it is to approach conversations about firearms with cultural humility and respect, because effective prevention depends on trust and collaboration rather than judgment."