My love for nursing started early on as a youngster listening to my mom describe her nursing career in the Netherlands prior to immigrating to the United States. In college, I volunteered as a “pink lady” at the local community Emergency Department where a flight nurse offered to show me the Mediflight helicopter. This began my interest in prehospital medicine and 11 years later I accepted my first position as a flight nurse, at the same hospital where I was first introduced to flight medicine.
The military relocated our family to Tennessee and started my career with Vanderbilt in 1998 with the critical care pool and emergency department and then as a LifeFlight Flight Nurse in 2000. During my tenure at LifeFlight there has been tremendous growth and began the second remote base in Clarksville as Chief Flight Nurse in 2003, Clinical Operations Director in 2010, Program Director in 2012 and currently as a Flight Nurse Practitioner, a new role to LifeFlight that began in 2020.
Vanderbilt LifeFlight is one of 6 flight programs nationally that has integrated the Nurse Practitioner Role as part of the flight team. This role manages all ages in the prehospital setting whether on a scene or interfacility transport within a helicopter or airplane or ground ambulance. Advanced skill set such as central line and chest tube placement, intubation, and pericardiocentesis are integral to this position along with managing critically ill patients of all ages.
The past two years have been the most challenging for me professionally as we progressed through the COVID pandemic along with the clinical challenges in transport such as oxygenation, hemodynamics, ECMO and transporting to places unheard of due to critical care bed shortages. Due to high census of critical care patients during the pandemic, I had the opportunity to work additional shifts at Vanderbilt Wilson ICU as a provider to help relieve the staffing and high census challenges that were becoming the norm. The unknown of what your next shift brings is what continues to challenge me, however, more importantly making a difference for the patient and family and bridging the gap of communication and education. I absolutely enjoy mentoring new staff at Life Flight whether in the classroom or during transports and lucky to work with some of the smartest and talented professionals in the industry.
EMS legislation is also a passion and in my role as Secretary for the Tennessee Ambulance Service Association we have been able to improve EMS funding, optimize educational opportunities and educate the public about EMS. In my local community I volunteer as the E911 District Board chair and work with a tremendous group of call takers/dispatchers, leadership, and E911 board members within a rapidly growing community.
Personally, I am married to Brian who is a pastor and manages our farm in Palmyra/Cunningham Tennessee and blessed with 3 children (and spouses) and 6 grandchildren. In my spare time I love to walk/run, garden, raise animals that include peacocks, chickens, dogs, cats, horses, and Longhorns, traveling, hanging out with my family, Sunday dinners and teaching Sunday school to our youth.