Working in an emergency department in a regional city can suddenly make you aware of how small a place really is, Launceston General Hospital staff say.
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ED director Dr Lucy Reed and nurse unit manager Shaun Probert have both had people they knew coming through the emergency doors on a stretcher.
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Like so many, they also know people who have been killed on Tasmania’s roads.
“We just lost a colleague recently,” Mr Probert said.
“He was killed in a car crash coming home from work.
“We’ve had staff who have had immediate family who have been killed. That’s Tasmania - we think Launceston’s a big place until you work in a place like this and it’s a very small community.”
Dr Reed and Mr Probert spoke to The Examiner as part of the In Your Hands road safety campaign.
In their jobs, they have seen serious cases of road trauma.
“Dealing with families is an emotional part of our job but it’s what we do,” Dr Reed said. “We’re supported by social work and they do a lot of this and the follow up afterwards but breaking bad news is something we train for.
“It’s never easy but it’s something we do.”
Mr Probert said ED staff received preemptive information after car crashes that allowed them to make a plan before the patients arrived.
“That can be as simple as making sure we’ve got social workers to make sure you support any of the survivors of a crash or the family members,” he said.
“It can involve calling surgeons in, anaesthetists, notifying the blood bank, and the rest is making sure we start looking after each other really early on.”
Dr Reed said road trauma impacted everyone differently.
“We all have our avenues to go and debrief and freshen ourselves up, because you have to move onto the next patient.
“There’s a separation between someone that comes in so seriously injured that we can’t do anything to actually sustain their life, as opposed to the person who we put our hearts and souls in as a team and fight to save them and then we still lose.
“That can lead to feelings of loss and failure.”
While the festive season is over, Dr Reed and Mr Probert said road safety needed to remain at the forefront of drivers’ minds.
“Please drive carefully, please don’t drink, don’t use your mobile phone and stick to the speed limit,” Dr Reed said.
Mr Probert said they were passing on the same message to their workmates.
“We’ll be on the roads so it’s the same – slow down, take care, be aware that if you’re fatigued, delay your trip for half-an-hour.
“There’s a lifetime to reflect upon for the survivors.”
