Belmont Nursing graduate Mia (Sharp) Bransford, left, and her sister Marisa Sharp, pose for a cell-phone photo just before going into the movie.

Mia (Sharp) Bransford, a 2007 BSN graduate from the School of Nursing who currently serves as a nurse in the Pediatric Emergency Department at the Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt, was one of the few trained healthcare workers on the scene of the tragic shooting at a movie theatre in Aurora, Colorado on July 20.   Her story was shared by Wayne Wood with an article in the Vanderbilt University Medical Center Reporter (linked here).

Here are some excerpts from the article:

“I heard people saying, ‘My friend’s been shot’ or ‘Somebody’s been shot.’ I identified myself as an emergency nurse and said that I could offer aid,” she said. She and a firefighter were working with several patients in the area at the back of the theater. There were two patients with whom she was working most closely, one with a head wound and wrist pain, and the other with what she described as “a bad leg wound that I applied direct pressure to and elevated.”

She remembers at some point, when it was all over, thinking to herself, “You didn’t know you had that in you.”  But of course, she did know. As an emergency room nurse and an EMT, she says, “You kind of get used to knowing how to handle emergency situations.” There was a professional pride in her ability to stay calm, to handle the situation, to offer help without hesitation.

“You’re in the theater, expecting to see a movie, and then all this chaos is going on. … How does a girl on vacation from Tennessee end up in something that makes headlines all over the country?