Two public health crises. That’s what health care workers in the Emergency Department at the University of New Mexico say they’re dealing with every day. “I am deeply concerned about two public health crises that we’re facing in New Mexico right now. The first one of course is the COVID pandemic. The second one is this surging violence, especially gun violence,” Dr. Steven McLaughlin said to reporters on Aug. 19 after four Albuquerque Police Officers were injured in a shooting while responding to a robbery. Related: 4 officers injured after shooting at Dutch Bros Coffee ShopMcLaughlin is the Chair of the Department of Emergency Medicine at the University of New Mexico Hospital. UNMH is home to the state’s only level one trauma center, which means they care for the most severely injured patients including gunshot victims. “It’s changed a lot in my 20 years here. Recently, we’ve seen a lot more gun violence,” McLaughlin said. More: Do you feel safe in Albuquerque? APD Chief speaks out after another homicideAccording to data from the Albuquerque Police Department, there have been 405 gunshot wound victims in the city from March 1, 2020, to Sept. 30, 2021. Seventy-two of those shootings were categorized as “accidental” shootings. “Gun violence is a public health emergency that we’re facing,” McLaughlin said in August. Related: Violent Halloween weekend leaves 5 dead, multiple injuredMcLaughlin told KOAT he feels for his colleagues who are dealing with what feels like whiplash, handling both COVID-19 patients and gunshot victims. “It’s mentally challenging moving back and forth between those, it feels surreal at times,” he said. He adds it’s been especially hard on trauma nurses.Even before the pandemic, he said levels of PTSD for ER nurses was very high. As the pandemic has dragged on and the violence continues he says it’s only increasing the PTSD they see among nurses. “It’s defeating and exhausting now,” Kacee Ramos told KOAT. Ramos is a registered nurse at UNMH. She said she sees two to 10 gunshot victims on any given day. Ramos said to protect her mental health, she’s had to cut back her hours at work. “Some days it’s not worth it, some days it is,” she said. “Morale, I would say, is very low right now.”When asked who or what is to blame for the recent uptick in violence, Ramos said, “I think gun violence is multifactorial, and it’s just a product of things that have failed. Failed the person, failed the community. I believe that gun violence is just a product of the health disparities that people face.”McLaughlin said the problem needs to be looked at like a public health emergency. “What solutions would I propose to think of it as a public health emergency. And the way we approach any public health emergency is by gathering data by doing research, and by really trying to understand at a deep level, what’s going on with that problem, what’s causing it. Who is it affecting and potentially what, what are the actions that we could take to prevent the problem?” he said. In September a group of New Mexico democrats outlined a package of criminal justice bills intended to reduce violence, including penalties for failing to safely store guns, establishing an office of gun violence prevention and reducing high-capacity magazines, like those used to injure the four APD officers in August. Republican lawmakers are also making this a topic of discussion and say they plan to ask the legislature to reconsider a list of crime bills that were rejected in the previous session. This will happen in January.
Two public health crises.
That’s what health care workers in the Emergency Department at the University of New Mexico say they’re dealing with every day.
“I am deeply concerned about two public health crises that we’re facing in New Mexico right now. The first one of course is the COVID pandemic. The second one is this surging violence, especially gun violence,” Dr. Steven McLaughlin said to reporters on Aug. 19 after four Albuquerque Police Officers were injured in a shooting while responding to a robbery.
Related: 4 officers injured after shooting at Dutch Bros Coffee Shop
McLaughlin is the Chair of the Department of Emergency Medicine at the University of New Mexico Hospital.
UNMH is home to the state’s only level one trauma center, which means they care for the most severely injured patients including gunshot victims.
“It’s changed a lot in my 20 years here. Recently, we’ve seen a lot more gun violence,” McLaughlin said.
More: Do you feel safe in Albuquerque? APD Chief speaks out after another homicide
According to data from the Albuquerque Police Department, there have been 405 gunshot wound victims in the city from March 1, 2020, to Sept. 30, 2021. Seventy-two of those shootings were categorized as “accidental” shootings.
“Gun violence is a public health emergency that we’re facing,” McLaughlin said in August.
Related: Violent Halloween weekend leaves 5 dead, multiple injured
McLaughlin told KOAT he feels for his colleagues who are dealing with what feels like whiplash, handling both COVID-19 patients and gunshot victims.
“It’s mentally challenging moving back and forth between those, it feels surreal at times,” he said.
He adds it’s been especially hard on trauma nurses.
Even before the pandemic, he said levels of PTSD for ER nurses was very high. As the pandemic has dragged on and the violence continues he says it’s only increasing the PTSD they see among nurses.
“It’s defeating and exhausting now,” Kacee Ramos told KOAT.
Ramos is a registered nurse at UNMH. She said she sees two to 10 gunshot victims on any given day.
Ramos said to protect her mental health, she’s had to cut back her hours at work.
“Some days it’s not worth it, some days it is,” she said. “Morale, I would say, is very low right now.”
When asked who or what is to blame for the recent uptick in violence, Ramos said, “I think gun violence is multifactorial, and it’s just a product of things that have failed. Failed the person, failed the community. I believe that gun violence is just a product of the health disparities that people face.”
McLaughlin said the problem needs to be looked at like a public health emergency.
“What solutions would I propose to think of it as a public health emergency. And the way we approach any public health emergency is by gathering data by doing research, and by really trying to understand at a deep level, what’s going on with that problem, what’s causing it. Who is it affecting and potentially what, what are the actions that we could take to prevent the problem?” he said.
In September a group of New Mexico democrats outlined a package of criminal justice bills intended to reduce violence, including penalties for failing to safely store guns, establishing an office of gun violence prevention and reducing high-capacity magazines, like those used to injure the four APD officers in August.
Republican lawmakers are also making this a topic of discussion and say they plan to ask the legislature to reconsider a list of crime bills that were rejected in the previous session. This will happen in January.
