For the last 15 or so years, improvements in health care have enabled very sick patients to actually survive and return home to a life that is very different than before they got “sick.” Such patients have either undergone arduous medical therapies, often for cancer diagnoses, and/or have been cared for in Intensive Care Units (ICUs).

AMSN’s tagline is Compassion, Commitment, Connection, and we know medical-surgical nurses display these traits every day. Medical-surgical nurses show empathy and compassion to patients and their family members every shift they work.

As nurses, we understand the word trauma and the implications of the resulting damage. I would guess you immediately envisioned a trauma bay in an Emergency Department, with someone with catastrophic injuries swarmed by a team of professionals working in orchestrated chaos to preserve life.