Pam Holt understands the need to make an impact – quickly.
“I have five minutes to go from, ‘Hi, I’m Pam,’ to, ‘Your life could be changed forever,’” says Holt, trauma prevention education coordinator for St. John’s Hospital.
She uses data from St. John’s Emergency Trauma Center to find the top local injury causes and develops prevention programs to bring down the numbers.
“Motor vehicle crashes are the leading cause of injury, and that’s across all age ranges,” she says. “They are, in my opinion, the single largest public health problem.”
Joe Rickman, district traffic engineer for Missouri Department of Transportation and chairman of the Springfield region’s Missouri Coalition for Roadway Safety, has worked with Holt to reduce motor vehicle-related injuries and has seen her efforts for prevention firsthand.
“It’s her personality and her passion, her drive to want to make a difference,” he says. “I’ve seen her talk at national conferences, at engineering forums and with high school kids. She always brings her passion with her.”
Holt was a nurse in the burn unit when St. John’s became a Level I trauma center. Level I status requires trauma centers to provide prevention education, Holt says, and she offered to take the lead.
“Having seen what she’s seen in the ER helps give her the drive,” Rickman says.
Presented with the trauma education opportunity by Dr. Roger Huckfeldt, Holt got to work developing what is now the St. John’s/Kohl’s Injury Prevention Center.
“The first day on the job, he said, ‘Figure it out,’” Holt recalls.
A decade later, she seems to have done just that. Her accomplishments include drafting legislation that would become Missouri’s Child Passenger Safety Law; creating the statewide Battle of the Belt program that promotes teen seatbelt use; and traveling nationwide to help other cities and states work toward highway safety.
She gets the most satisfaction, though, from knowing she’s making a difference, such as when, out in the community, she is recognized as the driving lady, the car seat lady or the fire safety lady.
“I love these little labels that I get, because when they see me, they’re reminded that they know,” Holt says. [[In-content Ad]]
