I grew up in a generation where every Sunday evening you turned on your television to watch The Wonderful World of Disney. You were mesmerized with creative programming that always had a take-home message about doing the right thing, taking chances, forgiveness, and love. Occasionally, in his programming, Mr. Disney would intersperse bits of knowledge about the world, highlight a different county and its people, and in the background, you would hear the song "It's a Small World."
Much has changed in the world since the mid-1960s, but much has not. Because of advances in travel and technology, the world seems like a smaller place and indeed there is more of a global community now than ever. The Society of Trauma Nurses (STN) is involved with trauma care on six of the seven continents. In formalizing and strengthening our partnerships around the globe, STN's International Council has become an integral part in the robust coalition for quality trauma care across the globe. Director Knut Magne Kolstadbraten, President-Elect Sean Elwell, and Executive Director Stephanie Czuhajewski have been instrumental in providing opportunities for the Council to provide their thoughts and views on many topics. Injury prevention, certification examinations, Advanced Trauma Course for Nursing (ATCN), trauma registry development and improvement, etc., are just a few of the subjects being discussed every month. The requests for STN to be more of a global presence and share its knowledge and expertise grow every year.
What does become apparent in our dialogues with our international colleagues is that many in the world still struggle for clean water, electricity, food, a roof over their heads, health care, and peace in their lives. President John F. Kennedy once said, "Our most basic common link to the world is that we all inhabit this planet. We all breathe the same air. We all cherish our children's future. And we are all mortal" (Kennedy, 1963). We are all mortal, and the need for quality trauma care is a worldwide issue that we all have in common.
As your President, I had the privilege in November 2017 to attend the XXX Pan American Trauma Society Meeting in Mexico City. It was an amazing experience. I met and discussed many topics with key trauma nursing leaders from several Latin American countries. I learned much from international colleagues and the unique challenges that they face. I made wonderful new friends, and I am working to make STN programs more accessible to them.
Our colleagues in Latin America are excited to meet and learn things from their North American counterparts. The XXXI Pan American Congress of Trauma, Critical Care and Emergency Surgery will be held in Cartagena, Columbia, from August 14 to 17, 2018. Many North American physicians and nurses attend this conference and are forging relationships with their Latin American colleagues. You do not have to be bilingual to attend or present; there are translators at each lecture. If you wish to present, you will present your talk in English; the audience wears headphones and listens to the translator. It is a fascinating process to watch the faces of colleagues who do not speak English understand what you are saying as they listen to the translation through their headphones.
South America is not the only continent upon which STN is expanding. President-Elect Sean Elwell has already committed to attending the 2018 European Society for Trauma and Emergency Surgery annual meeting, which will be held in May 6-8, 2018, in Valencia, Spain. The Advanced Trauma Course for Nursing is very active in the European trauma community, and STN is pleased to partner with our European colleagues to provide nursing leadership and expertise as needed.
This past December, Kristen M. Chreiman, Digital Editor of the Journal of Trauma Nursing, sent her first message in a foreign language to the STN world. Kristen worked with Cody Jones from the STN national office, and they have devised a process that STN can utilize to take our trauma nursing content and change it into one of 20 languages. The Society of Trauma Nurses is now able to communicate with our members and potential members in their native languages via Facebook, Twitter, and other social media platforms. It was amazing to see Kristen's holiday greeting and trauma messages in Spanish spread from one country to another and even be viewed in the U.S. territory of Puerto Rico.
The Society of Trauma Nurses recognizes that we cannot resolve all the world's problems but we can do a few things. The STN Board of Directors recognizes that as the foremost trauma nursing organization in the world, there is an obligation that comes with that prestige. The obligation is to assist and invest resources not only in our membership and organization but also into others in the world. There are many variations of the quotation, "From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked" (Bartlett, 2005, p. 25). The Society of Trauma Nurses is willing to invest in underserved parts of the world and is doing so with ATCN scholarships, research grants, as well as with international leadership fellowships and mentorships.
There is much that STN can learn from our international colleagues and much that our colleagues can learn from us. To further facilitate the mutual exchange of ideas, STN is pleased to be collaborating with the American Association for Surgery of Trauma to host the Fourth World Trauma Congress in San Diego, CA, from September 26 to 29, 2018. The Society of Trauma Nurses will be providing the nursing tract for this international conference and will be sending out the information for abstract submissions very shortly. Please think about attending this wonderful opportunity to meet your international trauma colleagues. Please also think about submitting an abstract to this event and sharing your expertise and knowledge.
As STN continues to extend its global presence and expand its horizons, we are all reminded that is really is a small world. I hope that you will consider expanding your horizons and being part of the STN global initiative to assist trauma nursing around the world. If you are interested in helping a colleague from a foreign country, please e-mail me at mailto:[email protected] and let's talk about it. In closing, if we remember the tune that Walt Disney would whistle on his show-The reason for helping our international trauma colleagues can be really as simple as a child's song.
It's a world of laughter and a world of tears, it's a world of hopes and a world of fears, there's so much that we share, that it's time we're aware, it's a small world after all....
...There is just one moon and one golden sun and a smile means friendship to everyone, though the mountains divide and the oceans are wide. It's a small world after all.
It's a world of wonder, a world of fun and in years to come we'll know peace on earth. We'll open our eyes and we'll all realize it's a small world after all.
It's a small world after all, it's a small world after all, it's a small world after all, it's a small, small world. (Sherman & Sherman, 1963)
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