Plea from a trauma nurse: Stay away from me.

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Nov. 18 is National Injury Prevention Day.

It's a day focused on efforts to steal business from my place of work. Let me explain.

I work in the pediatric intensive care unit (PICU) at Hennepin County Medical Center, which has one of only four Level 1 pediatric trauma centers in the state of Minnesota (the others are Children's, Regions and Mayo). The Level 1 designation means, in part, that we need to guarantee 24/7 access to emergency care and to all the specialties that includes. My colleagues and I have the tremendous privilege and the grave responsibility of taking care of children, age 0 to 18, who are victims of trauma. Our patients arrive by car, ambulance or helicopter from all corners of Minnesota and even from adjacent states.

Car crashes, falls, poisonings, sports injuries, gunshot wounds, abuse — we see it all.

We also see the tremendous benefit of basic injury-prevention measures.

The list goes on.

Trauma staffers are required to maintain certifications both as individuals and collectively as an organization. We are audited routinely. We do simulations on a regular basis. We do outreach. We attend trauma conferences and take trauma classes online.

But perhaps the greatest contribution we can make to pediatric and population health is in the area of prevention.

We want every biker in a helmet, every child in a car seat/booster, every passenger in every vehicle wearing a seat belt. Every time.

If kids live in homes with firearms, we want the weapons and ammunition securely stored and locked.

Of course, children are great negotiators. They may wheel and deal to bend the rules to get later bedtimes, junk food or screen time. But children need to learn from the earliest age that things like injury-prevention rules, seat belts and car seats are nonnegotiable.

This fall is seeing a larger-than-usual surge in respiratory illnesses. As the typical flu season gets into high gear, Minnesota's pediatric units are packed with cases of influenza, RSV, COVID-19 and more. This surge creates additional pressure and competition for a finite number of pediatric beds for trauma victims.

It must be noted that the financial implications of helping our children avoid injury and stay out of the hospital are massive: According to the Centers for Disease Control, deaths due to injury cost Minnesota more than $2.5 billion each year. Trauma is the leading cause of death not just for children in this state, but among all people from age 1 to 44.

All citizens can play a role in injury prevention; it doesn't require any extra expense or specialized trauma training. Every time you buckle up, don a bike helmet or use sports or firearm safety gear, you are protecting yourself while also setting an important example for Minnesota's youngsters. Children will learn to prevent traumatic injuries most effectively if they can follow the lead of the adults around them.

That will help keep our state's youngest residents from becoming our state's pediatric patients.