Sarah Fuson

Dr. Daggs
November 7, 2013
Backgrounder

NATS History
National Association of Trauma Specialist (NATS) was founded in 1956 in Chicago,
Illinois. Seven years ago the headquarters were moved to a new location in Serene, Illinois.
NATS is an organization with retired and active physicians who specialized in trauma injuries
that lead to death. Research from the World War II nearly 65% of the deaths was due to trauma
induced injuries. The thought alone that so many people lost their lives because of the lack of
knowledge of trauma injuries is horrible. With all the results they gathered from the World War II
the physicians came up with a faster treatment for the soldiers with trauma injuries to heal and
not end in death. The research form the World War II led the trauma physicians to come together
and create the organization NATS. That just goes to show how important this organization was
and is to the community
The board of directors decided to move the headquarters for 5 reasons which were: the
State University has a big and important medical facility located in Serene, two faculty members
of the State University who are specialists in emergency medicine won two Nobel Prizes in
medicine, the state medical school is known for being one of the best in emergency treatments,
Serene is in a good location and is a well-known city that is easy to get to and from and it is a
city that appeals to low class and high upper class.

Important people
There are many important faces that are involved with NATS. Dr. Arthur Hart is the
executive director and has been for 10 years. He graduated with a medical degree and emergency
room studies with an emphasis in thoracic medicine. The Director of operations is Barry P.
Tallant. Unlike Dr. Hart, Barry Tallant does not have a medical degree but has a M.B.A. degree
in Operations Management. Patricia R. Bills is the director of financial affairs. Patricia Bills has
many degrees in nursing and along with that has six years of experience working in a hospital
emergency room.
The director of communications is Sally S. Forth who is a new member of NATS. Sally
Forth graduates from the State University with a B.A. and a M.A. in Public Relations. Before she
became an important member of NATS she was a research director for a major agency in New
York City. Before her work in New York City she was in charge of account services in Dallas and
Atlanta and was in charge of creative services for three years in San Francisco for a major firm.
These members get elected by secret ballots for a two year term as the chairman, Hart Z. Smarf,
gets elected by the board.
Future for NATS
Like any organization or company you need to set goals and objectives. The goal for
NATS is very clear. They want to reduce the number of patients that come in with trauma
injuries. NATS wants to send the message to other working physicians that it is very important to
have the knowledge about what to do in the situation of a trauma patient. With more and more
physicians having this knowledge they could reduce the number of deaths as a whole.

Problems that occur

All kinds of organizations have problems and issues that occur and as a whole they need
to work on fixing and solving these problems. A problem that NATS faces on a daily basic is
how long and hard emergency physicians work. Physicians work around 70-hours a week. This
takes a toll on their physical health, and even emotional health. They spend all this time away
from their family which eventually puts up a wall between the physician and his or her spouse
and maybe children. With all that going on in ones life it can be hard and even result to divorce.
That can lead to anyone to get depressed and turn to alcohol or drugs.
A life of a physician is hard, it is not something that everybody wakes up one day and
says I want to be an emergency room trauma physician. They not only work eight to five but they
are on call. They can be having a nice relaxing evening with their family and it just takes one
phone call and they are out the door. They have to make life or death decisions that affect more
than just one person.
Have you ever had to take a trip to the emergency room and had to wait and wait and
wait? That is where another problem comes to the surface. There is so much activity and things
happening around that small area, things can get forgotten or it could just take a long time
because the rooms are already full.
Conclusion
Towards the end of last year there were more than 12,000 physicians were official
members of the NATS organization. Not only are they just physicians from the United States but

18 percent of the physicians are from 22 different foreign countries. These doctors did not just
jump into trauma treatment. They physicians must take and complete a residency following the
completion of medical school. There are programs that are hosted throughout various medical
schools and medical hospitals that can further your education and knowledge which are usually
two to five days a week. To keep updated with all the new research and findings NATS gets,
there is an annual convention that offers more training sessions.
NATS is a very influential group that does everything they can to help reduce the number
of trauma deaths everywhere. With the number of active physicians growing and growing and
their drive to get as much information as possible is outstanding. All the work they do just goes
to show how they feel about what they do and what it means to them.

Works Cited
Trossman, S. (2009). A delicate balance: Nurses have dual roles when the patient is
a loved one. (Cover story). American Nurse, 41(6), 1-9.
Frank, C., Asp, M., & Dahlberg, K. (2009). Patient participation in emergency care a
phenomenographic analysis of caregivers conceptions. Journal Of Clinical Nursing,
18(18), 2555-2562. doi:10.1111/j.1365-2702.2008.02477.x
National Association of Trauma Specialists (NATS). (2011) The Public Relations
Writing Exercise Book. P. 18-23. Web