Associate Professor and Students Set Up Mobile Emergency Treatment Unit

My name is Dr. Elizabeth Ayello and I am a Clinical Associate Professor at the Division of Nursing at New York University. For thirty years I have had the honor of being a registered professional nurse.

On the morning of September 11, I saw the crystal clear blue sky over Manhattan become blackened with clouds and smoke as both towers of the World Trade Center tried in vain to remain standing. I knew instantly that it was not going to be the clinical orientation to medical surgical nursing for my students I had planned. I was to teach by example a different lesson that day.

As nurses, we heard the unspoken call for help. While some of my colleagues left for St. Vincent's Hospital, 29 nursing students, several other NYU nursing faculty, carrying all the gloves, masks, and dressing materials we had in our labs, and myself began walking uptown towards New York University Medical Center.

The emergency disaster personnel decided that four of my clinical instructors who were critical care nurses should go to NYU Downtown Hospital, which is located just blocks from the WTC. Next the call came for me to take nursing and medical students to help set up a mobile emergency treatment unit on the Hudson River north of the ground zero site. As we sped through the streets of NYC in the emergency vehicles with sirens blaring, the people lining the streets were calling to us, They were clapping, waving, and cheering us on. As I looked around the van at the young faces of the student nurses and doctors, I did what any nurse would do--- assess who I had with me, what experiences did these students come with and then tell them my plan. How many had been to the OR and seen parts of the internal body exposed? Who had seen wounds, burns or broken bones? Who can suture tissue back together? I also began to teach them what they might expect to see.

At Chelsea Piers, where normally New Yorkers play ball, skate, and do other sport activities, we all began setting up various treatment sections that would become in an hours time, a makeshift emergency treatment center. As the minutes turned to hours, the waiting became our enemy. I knew this was not a good sign. "First the hospitals should be filled with patients, then we should start getting victims", I thought. In a strange irony of health care, for the first time there were enough nurses and doctors, but NO patients. All our skills and ability waiting to heal the victims of this terrible tragedy, but where were our patients? It was unthinkable, would there be no patients?

Later that evening the first wave of injured rescue workers arrived. As a nurse I see what is not always visible nor obvious and hear with a 3rd ear. So I set about showing my students how to nurse. We asked the injured questions to decide who needed treatment first, or "triaging". Those with breathing problems or chest pain were a priority. We gave them oxygen and other treatments to help them breath better. Immediate EKGs were taken to see how their heart was doing. My students and I washed out their burning eyes with a solution of salt water called normal saline. No amount of Normal saline could flush the sights they had seen from their eyes. "Here's how you improvise and can use an intravenous IV bag to rinse out the burning," I said. We bandaged bruised legs and dressed minor burns. Giving them water to drink gave them the needed replacement of fluid that the smoke and fatigue had depleted from their bodies. Nursing is a human connection. We held their hands and let them talk about what they saw or which of their colleagues were missing. Other times we lent them our cell phones to call home. For some, the voices of their love ones were the best care we could provide. In this time of nursing shortage, events like the WTC catastrophe highlight the importance of having an adequate supply of RNs. The current nursing shortage makes us nurses worry that there will not be enough of us RNs to meet the call of "Real Necessary"

How did I become a nurse; I almost didn't become a nurse because I couldn't afford to go to college. But I was lucky because I received a small scholarship and my father was willing to work 2 jobs so I could go to Hunter College- Bellevue School of Nursing. Because the Federal government provided Title 8 monies, I was able continue my learning at Adelphi University and earn my Masters Degree as a clinical nurse specialist in medical-surgical nursing. I further enhanced my nursing education and learned how to do research into the best nursing practices by earning a PhD at New York University while working full time at a hospital and raising my family. This was possible because my employer re-embursed me my tuition and my family was willing to make sacrifices. I trust that you will agree with me that these monies were well spent. .

I am so proud of Junie and Faith, who are here today, as well as all the other NYU students who showed the world the competence and determination so typical of nurses. Right now we ask Congress to provide programs that will attract talented people to enter a proud profession, the nursing profession, a profession which makes a difference 24/7. We have many exciting educational paths to help qualified people of all ages and genders become nurses as well as educational programs for the continuing advancement of nurses. If America wants the number and quality of nurses that are needed today and tomorrow for health care, it must invest to attract and educate the best people to nursing now. The call bell is ringing, what will the answer be?