GUNSPhysicians Get Trained on Gun Safety
For the past three years, Winslow and Julie Parsonnet, MD, professor of medicine and of epidemiology, have worked on an online, self-paced course called Clinicians and Firearms. The aim is to promote education for clinicians, teaching how to reduce firearm injuries and deaths, including tips on how to talk to patients about safe storage and temporary removal of firearms from the home during times of high risk.
Dean Winslow, MD, a professor of medicine since 1998, deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan six times since Sept. 11, 2001. It was during these deployments, more than 11 years ago, that he saw first-hand how devastating gun injuries are — especially those from assault weapons.
Winslow became increasingly concerned about the proliferation of semiautomatic assault weapons and mass shootings in the United States after his time in the Air Force. In 2017, two days after the Sutherland Springs mass shooting, during his senate confirmation hearing for assistant secretary of defense for health affairs, Winslow told Senator Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire that he thought it was “insane” to sell semiautomatic assault weapons to civilians. Because of this statement his confirmation was put on indefinite hold by Senator John McCain of Arizona, until Winslow withdrew his name about a month later.
For the past three years, Winslow and Julie Parsonnet, MD, professor of medicine and of epidemiology, have worked on an online, self-paced course called Clinicians and Firearms. Medical student Christina Cantwell of UC Irvine and Deniz Cataltepe, MD, medical student at Icahn School of Medicine, helped develop the course material while partnering with Stanford Medicine. The aim is to promote education for clinicians, teaching how to reduce firearm injuries and deaths, including tips on how to talk to patients about safe storage and temporary removal of firearms from the home during times of high risk.
The course launched in 2021 and is continually updated.
“We’re dealing with a huge public health problem,” said Winslow. “We’ve controlled tuberculosis and HIV as major causes of death. We’re not cutting it with guns — we’ve let it become the leading cause of death in children ages one to 18.”
Safety as a Matter of Fact
In the U.S., physicians rank high in credibility, acting as a trusted source of information for the average person, Winslow said. Winslow saw an opportunity to leverage that perspective to improve patient care. In 2018, he and Parsonnet partnered with then Stanford School of Medicine student Sarabeth Spitzer, MD, to form Scrubs Addressing the Firearms Epidemic, or SAFE, a nonprofit for U.S. physicians that aims to promote gun safety education, research and policies. SAFE members created and administer the Clinicians and Firearms course.
