Robbie Donald: Hello everybody. Thank you for listening. We're going to talk today about the Joys of Being a Flight Clinician. My name is Robbie Donald. I am the Manager of San Juan Regional Air Care, and I have been a flight nurse for 12 years. And then recently took the management position of the program. I just wanted to share, why it's such a joy to work in this environment and, why I've come to love this group of people that I get to manage now.

I find to be a good flight clinician, you gotta have an adventurous spirit. Every day is different. Our calls are unpredictable. We work in diverse care settings and out on scene, and sometimes the stakes are high and the challenges, are real with life and death scenarios.

I wanted to share a story, that's one of the most memorable scene flights that I've had in my career. We got dispatched to a vehicle that drove off the cliffs just south of Navajo Dam and landed on the riverbank of the San Juan River. Aircare 1 toned out a helicopter response. We flew to the scene, realizing there was no access to the patient. Uh, we did a reconnaissance flight to find a good landing zone.

We did find one a couple hundred yards south of the crash site where we were able to land and unload there. My partner and I, we grabbed our bags and we had to start hiking up river, to make it to the scene. Once we arrived on scene, treading through knee high water, we found the patient was outside the vehicle, but entrapped under it.

And so we started our assessment and provided the initial care he needed. And started to formulate a plan on how we were going to get this patient out from under the vehicle, with limited resources. By the time we had arrived, there was several other first responders, a firefighter and a couple civilians that had made their way to that site.

We gathered our resources and decided that the best way to try and get this person out from under the vehicle would be to cut the tire and four of us were going to try and lift the vehicle and pull the patient out, which was ultimately successful, thanks to the help of all the individuals that had shown up. We were able to backboard the patient and get him secured and treated for his injuries.

This did take quite a bit of time for us to get him out from under the vehicle. So in the meantime, the Park Service was able to get there and cut a tunnel through the Russian Olives to get us back to our helicopter. So once the patient was secured into the helicopter, we were able to deliver him back here at San Juan Regional to the trauma center.

This just really sticks out in my mind, is the unpredictability of what we do. And we've gotta be ready for any call, any moment. And, I love that. I'm an adventurous spirit. I love doing, new things all the time, learning new things and, and really trying to meet the challenge, head on.

To be a flight clinician, you really have gotta have a lot of autonomy. We've gotta make critical decisions, in the moment and make sure that they're good decisions and, done appropriately. We sharpen our clinical skills, through practice and through the different trainings that we offer within our program.

Being a flight clinician, we're often the highest level care provider, on scene and within the clinics in our area. And, we have a big responsibility to treat these patients and get them to facilities that can more appropriately take care of their needs. I believe being a flight nurse, is just a very meaningful job.

It's given me great purpose in my life. In our area, we serve a very large geographical area with a lot of isolated communities and t he healthcare is very limited throughout the four corners region. And so being able to rapidly respond to the individuals in need and get them to places that can care for them, is a very important service, to the folks that live in this very rural area.

Of times we can make a difference between life and death with seeing calls and people that are very ill. They may be hours away from an appropriate healthcare facility that could treat them. And so having the ability to get to them and then take them to a higher level of care, can really make the difference between life or death for them.

We often find we're not just the caregivers, but we're the lifeline for this community. And it's a, a very proud aspect of our work that we all enjoy very much. One thing that our flight clinicians, certainly, need to be is they need to be healthy and active.

Living and working in the remote areas of the four corners brings a lot of challenges. We have a very diverse landscape and, and a very broad area that we cover from Utah to Arizona, Colorado, and a large part of New Mexico. A lot of our flight clinicians are very connected with nature. We, certainly love being out in the outdoors.

Staying fit and strong is very important as we are in the job of transporting people, and serving these small communities that lack significant healthcare options, really gives us the ability to have an impact on those lives and be a part of the solution for those who are sick and injured.

 I find working in these beautiful and remote areas bring a deep sense of peace and appreciation for the nature and for the people who live in these communities. Small communities often express immense gratitude. We have a close knit bond with our local, and area colleagues alike from the first responders to the volunteer firefighters to our EMS personnel.

Working together to save lives has really become one of the proudest points of my career. As a flight nurse, we are required to have a considerable amount of education and learning, to be a flight nurse or a flight paramedic. We do ask that you have three years of critical care experience and during that time really focusing on skills, the next steps on patient care, and really understanding the complexities from the initial visit to potential discharge and all the things that we can do in between that can help improve the patient's condition. We've got a large amount of continuous learning that we do. We're exposed to a wide range of emergencies like trauma, cardiac, pediatric, obstetric, and much more. And it is our job to make sure that we are the jack of all trades, so to speak, that we know how to treat each patient as an individual, but also understand that their particular illness or injury is unique and we are to provide the best care possible for them. Thus, continuing education, very important for all of us. The ongoing trainings, in close collaboration with our nurses, our medics, the pilots and even the mechanics really make sure that we have a highly functioning flight team and that we can respond to emergencies in a moment's notice.

I feel that being a flight nurse is really helped me become more resilient and I've grown personally, in my skills and my confidence.

I've found living and working in this rural environment has really built my confidence, mental toughness, and emotional strength to care for the people of this community. I've learned to trust my instincts, to stay calm and to be ready for whatever comes my way. I love the folks that I work with. I believe that they're all very talented and good people who truly put the patient first and do all that they can to provide the best care possible to our greater community of the four corners.

I'm so thankful and proud to work for San Juan Regional Aircare. It has provided me with incredible experiences, a lot of personal growth, and to work with some of the greatest colleagues that I've known. It's a wonderful job. We live in a wonderful community and I hope to continue to serve this community for many years to come.

I want to thank everybody for listening, and I hope you have a great day.