TULSA, Okla. — Watching this tragedy unfold was frightening for many people but especially for one nursing student employed by Saint Francis.
Jarod McCumber is a nursing student and works at the hospital just a sky bridge away from the building where the gunman opened fire.
"It’s scary that it’s in the place where I work, where I do clinical, where all my fellow classmates do clinical,” McCumber said.
While McCumber is thankful he wasn’t working at the time of the shooting, he says that wasn’t his first thought when he heard the news Wednesday evening.
“When I thought about it the first thought was my fellow students and hoping none of them had to witness or be in that tragic situation,” he said.
“I think that this can happen anywhere, unfortunately. I don’t wish to do anything else and I never would regardless of whether or not there’s an extreme danger that can come from it.”
Even after this, he says he still wants to be a nurse.
“We can’t allow that to make us want to turn our back on the reason that we are here," Cliff Robertson, the president and CEO of Saint Francis Health System, said. "We were all called into this profession... to care for others and to care for our community and while it's human nature to want to turn our backs right now to want to walk away we can’t do that and we won’t do that.”
Robertson says 10,000 people work in the Saint Francis Health System. He says he encourages his staff to ask questions and acknowledge that this event will change Saint Francis.
McCumber says while it will be difficult to move past this, he says it will be important to have the community’s support.
“Just be even an ear to listen, a shoulder to cry on, somebody to just hold and hug for them can be very helpful,” McCumber said.
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