Issue link: https://beckershealthcare.uberflip.com/i/717576
77 FINANCE CMO / CARE DELIVERY 'Ever-Ready': 3 Nurses Discuss Orlando Regional Medical Center's Mass Shooting Response By Brian Zimmerman O n June 12, 49 people were killed and 53 were injured when a shooter opened fire inside the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Fla., less than half a mile from Orlando Regional Medical Center. Suddenly, nurses at ORMC found themselves on the front lines of responding to the largest mass shooting in American history as they cared for dozens of victims and comforted patients' families. Roughly a month aer the shooting, ORMC CNO Jayne Willis, MSN, RN, and two ORMC patient care administrators — Alicia Bechtel, RN, and Louise Philp, RN — spoke with Becker's about their hospital's response to the tragedy. Note: is conversation has been lightly edited for length and clarity. Question: What was the nursing re- sponse like at Orlando Regional Med- ical Center directly after the shooting? Louise Philp: Right away, extra nursing staff came to the emergency room. Arnold Palm- er [Hospital for Children, a sister hospital of ORMC] sent staff over aer the event. Addi- tional staff from the intensive care unit were also deployed to the ER. We had to quickly mobilize resources to areas of greatest need. Alicia Bechtel: We implemented HICS [Hos- pital Incident Command System]. We still had 450 patients [unrelated to the shooting] to take care of. We had to make sure staffing was ap- propriate in those units, and we had to move patients that were currently in the nursing de- partment to other units. My first response was transferring patients out of the emergency de- partment to make room for the victims. Q: What were the biggest challenges to the nursing department in dealing with this tragedy? Jayne Willis: We are a Level I trauma center, so the nursing staff is very used to dealing with trauma. e number of patients dealing with these injuries at one time was challenging. e biggest challenge was dealing with the large influx of families and visitors. We had to sup- port families, visitors and each other. We had to bring in counselors as well. We had to be advocates for the patients. It was the nurses' responsibility to speak on the patients' behalf. LP: We felt it was our obligation to care for all the families that arrived at the hospital, both those that had patients here in our care or those families still waiting to have their love one iden- tified at the club. e toughest part was to try to get them information as fast as we could and meet their needs. AB: e number of families that were griev- ing was overwhelming. We also had to work with the law enforcement to figure out which patient was where and to identify patients and match them with their loved ones. Our guest services team did an outstanding job at man- aging the situation. Q: What are you most proud of regard- ing ORMC's response? JW: I was physically out of the country. To not physically be present in the beginning was very, very difficult. e thing I was most proud of is how well the team performed. I did not receive one complaint from a patient. I've never seen such collaboration and such teamwork. People just did what they were supposed to do. For years, we drilled for emergency response. e Pulse nightclub is just around the corner. Be- cause they were so close we had police officers transporting victims, we had civilians carrying in patients. We had to triage them as soon as they hit the emergency department. By 9:45 the next morning, you wouldn't have even known there was a mass tragedy. LP: I'm proud of the extraordinary care that was given to the patients. Everybody received the emotional support they deserved. As Alicia mentioned, guest services did an outstanding job. e ED looked normal. We did this with- out canceling any elective surgeries. e hospi- tal kept right on running. Q: How has this experience changed you? AB: I'm just very proud of the team. We've al- ways drilled for something like this, and I think when we run through these drills in the future, I'll take them even more seriously. LP: I think it just reenergized me. It reminded me why I became a nurse. As an administrator, you can lose sight of that. is brought me back to my nursing roots — to be there for people when they need it the most. JW: I was absolutely overwhelmed with the outpouring of support. Not only our local com- munity but nationally. We received banners and food from administrators at other hospitals. at level of support gave us the encouragement we needed to prevail. I am committed to share the same level of support to other hospitals fac- ing tragedy. I have really learned the importance of being ever-ready. We had decades of develop- ing infrastructure and processes to respond, and my continuing responsibility is making sure that we are ever-ready. n (Front, center, back: Alicia Bechtel, RN, Jayne Willis, MSN, RN, Louise Philp, RN)