When I think about my role as a nurse, a trauma nurse in a Level II trauma center, a trauma clinical nurse specialist and program manager, I spend much of my time focusing on my hospital, our trauma program, performance improvement, injury prevention, and ensuring optimal clinical care for our trauma patients. When I think about the Society of Trauma Nurses (STN) organization, I think about trauma nurses from all over the world doing the same day-to-day work in their own facilities and communities. For those of us who have become a part of this wonderful, professional organization, our intent and purpose have gone beyond our own institutions and trauma centers. As STN members and as your President, it is our mission to promote optimal and equitable trauma care for all people, and it is our vision to be the premier global nursing organization across the trauma continuum. Please allow me to share a recent experience that supports exactly that.

One of STN's core values is that of collaboration. Collaboration can be defined as “the act of working with another person or group in order to achieve or do something” (Merriam-Webster, n.d.). If you are new to STN, you may not realize, but STN has spent a lot of time, talent, and energy toward building relationships over the years. It's the very core of what we do, from within and externally. Members partnering with each other, forming committees to accomplish projects, providing educational offerings, and sharing ideas create a great network of “people” resources and material resources. These many resources, then, are shared and utilized by the trauma community well beyond our own organization.

In addition to the ongoing collaboration between members, STN partners with various other professional organizations and societies that focus on trauma care and trauma systems as part of their mission and vision. We are honored to partner with organizations like the American Association of Surgery on Trauma (AAST), American College of Surgeons (ACS), American Trauma Society (ATS), Eastern Association for the Surgery of Trauma (EAST), Panamerican Trauma Society (PTS), Pediatric Trauma Society (PTS), and Trauma Centers Association of America (TCAA), to name a few.

Dr. Raul Coimbra, MD, PhD, FACS, is currently the surgeon-in-chief of the Riverside University Health System Medical Center and professor of surgery at Loma Linda University School of Medicine. In addition to his outstanding service in leadership roles to the ACS, AAST, and the World Health Organization (WHO), Dr. Coimbra has served as the President of the Board of Directors for the World Coalition Trauma Care (WCTC) organization.

As preparations began, Dr. Coimbra and Professor Yasuhiro Otomo invited STN to participate in the sixth World Trauma Congress (WTC), which was held August 9–12, 2023, in Tokyo, Japan. Professor Otomo, the chair of the Department of Acute Critical Care and Disaster Medicine at Tokyo Medical and Dental University is the President of the sixth WTC. The invitation to be a participating society also included sponsoring a nursing track on 1 day during the conference.

Permit me to share a bit of history about how the WTC came together. It all started in 2012 when world leaders from various trauma societies met to discuss the significance of traumatic injury. The statistics, then, as now, are alarming as trauma is the leading cause of death among persons aged 1–44 years in the United States (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2020). Worldwide, the age ranges from 5 to 29 years. From a global perspective, 5–6 million people are dying every year from traumatic injuries, and 80%–90% of those deaths occur in low- and middle-income countries (Rossiter, 2021). As these world leaders in trauma care met, they identified the need for increased awareness of the importance of trauma care, the need for more trauma education, and the need to develop systems in trauma care (Otomo, 2023). This led to the establishment of the WTC.

In an effort to improve the delivery of trauma care worldwide, the first (2012) WTC was held in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil; the second (2014) in Frankfurt, Germany; the third (2016) in New Delhi, India, and the fourth (2018) in San Diego, CA. It was at the fourth WTC that STN first sponsored a nursing education track as part of the conference.

As the world became unsettled with the pandemic, the fifth (2020) WTC, scheduled for Australia, was canceled and instead broadcast virtually in 2021. The sixth WTC originally scheduled for 2022 was again postponed due to COVID-19 concerns worldwide.

In August 2023, the STN and 33 emergency medical and surgical trauma societies worldwide and their respective leaders participated in the sixth WTC meeting at the Keio Plaza Hotel in Shinjuku. As President, I was honored to represent STN, along with President-Elect Leanne Young, and Past Clinical Director-at-Large Pamela Woods. Helen Jowett, STN's International Director-at-Large and President of the Australian & New Zealand Trauma Society attended WTC as well. As the only nursing society represented, it was a privilege to collaborate with trauma experts and leaders from all over the world. Each day of the conference was complete with trauma experts presenting the latest research and practices in trauma education, trauma care, trauma surgery, data collection and analysis, trauma systems, and more. Attendance at the congress was just shy of 800 participants!

I could elaborate so much more on the many presentations I attended, but instead, I'd like to share my experience with the nursing track that Leanne, Pam, and I had the honor of presenting and facilitating. In addition to our three presentations, 11 Japanese nurses presented oral abstracts, and three additional nurses had poster presentations. Upon our arrival at the conference to prepare for the nursing track, we were greeted by multiple members of Professor Otomo's organizing committee, who were very welcoming and ready to answer our questions and handle our technology needs.

Given that most of the nurses presenting their abstracts and others in the audience spoke Japanese and that the three of us do not speak or understand their native language, the WTC committee had a team of translators and language translator devices ready and waiting for us. Translators stayed in a small audio booth in the back of the conference room and verbally translated from Japanese to English for the abstract presentations and from English to Japanese during our presentations. It was absolutely amazing to be able to receive the translation, as each speaker was presenting without issue.

Oral and poster presentation topics centered around trauma nursing education and simulation in emergency and critical care nursing, challenges of web-based courses, the Japan Nursing for Trauma Evaluation and Care (JNTEC) course, end-of-life care, and care of family members of trauma patients. All of these wonderful oral and poster presenters shared their amazing projects, research, and outcomes. It was great to gain insight into trauma nursing in Japan, to understand their priorities, successes, and struggles, and how interesting to know that we all share similarities among our differences.

Even though, as nursing colleagues, we are “worlds apart,” it is only in the geographical sense (6,630 miles, to be exact, from Bucks County, PA, to Tokyo, Japan). Filled with collaboration and a sense of cohesiveness; together as trauma nurses, we share a “common” language. As the song goes, It's a Small World After All (Sherman, & Sherman, 1963).

I commend our Japanese nurse colleagues for welcoming us to their country and sharing their work and expertise in trauma nursing. My sincere thanks are extended to Professor Otomo, the WTC organizing committee, and Dr. Coimbra for inviting STN to participate in the WTC. I appreciate their efforts in coordinating this world event, fabulous hospitality, and collaboration.