Bioethics: In Our Healing Era: Supporting and Healing Together in a Time of Trauma

Column Author: Angie Knackstedt, BSN, RN, NPD-BC | Program Manager, Health Literacy & Nursing Bioethics; Co-Director of Certificate Program in Pediatric Bioethics

Jennifer Stallbaumer-Rouyer, LCSW, LSCSW

Column Editor: Brian Carter, MD | Neonatal/Perinatal Medicine, Bioethics; Neonatologist; Pediatric Bioethicist; Interim Director, Pediatric Bioethics | Professor of Pediatrics, University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Medicine

On Valentine’s Day this year our city experienced a familiar gun violence episode seen all too often throughout our country. While individual gun deaths and injury are unfortunately common in our metro area, the recent shooting resulted in a single event that left one person dead and 21 injured – with the entirety of the emotional trauma sequelae remaining to be seen. As health care professionals working with children and families, how can bioethics guide our response and contribute to a healthy and resilient community? How do we ensure that we are appropriately attending to the pain and confusion of others while caring for ourselves?

“… It takes strength to face our sadness and to grieve and to let our grief

and our anger flow in tears when they need to. It takes strength to talk

about our feelings and to reach out for help and comfort when we need it.”

Mr. Fred Rogers

If we turn to Virtue Ethics, we ask the questions: What kind of community do we wish to be, and how can we become that kind of community? In the face of senseless violence, can we see a role for the development of our individual character and that of our communities? How we respond in crisis can define us. Both our individual and collective approach begins with our shared humanity, even when there is trauma, through the cultivation of honesty, courage, compassion, generosity, fidelity and integrity.

As we talk to the children and families who come to us, we need to take time to establish trust and to meet each person at that place in their grief response where they are at that moment, knowing that processing grief does not follow a chronologically linear path. We should listen empathetically and encourage honesty, not shying away from the stories that are authentic even when they are full of strong emotions. We can listen with courage, compassion, and offer generous support and validation of feelings of grief, anger, fear, loss of innocence, and sadness. We need to provide a consistent and reliable presence, sitting with our colleagues, friends, patients and families amid their pain and confusion. We should also be honest with ourselves about our own thoughts and feelings around gun violence.

Post-traumatic growth and recovery of an individual and a community involves working together. Everyone responds to traumatic events differently and may require time and space to process.

• Continue to choose kindness.
• Be patient with yourself and others.
• Reach out continuously to a friend or colleague and encourage others to do so as well.
• Build connections to foster trust and feelings of wellbeing.

When we are well as a community, we can engage in creative problem solving around safety that is equitable, concrete and sustainable. We can be true healers. As Mr. Rogers reminded us, “Love and trust, in the space between what’s said and what’s heard in our life, can make all the difference in this world.” 

Children’s Mercy Resources for families:

https://www.childrensmercy.org/health-and-safety-resources/helping-kids-parade-shootings/

https://www.aftertheinjury.org/

https://www.childrensmercy.org/parent-ish/2024/02/parade-tragedy-resources/