Speaker 1: Oddly enough, and this is gonna sound so funny, I
Speaker 1: am a baseball field person, like I look for a
Speaker 1: baseball field every time we take off.
Speaker 2: Oh look there's a baseball field.
Speaker 1: Maybe it's the softball player in me, but I love
Speaker 1: to see them from up high.
Speaker 3: That's Asia B. She's thirty years old, lives in Maryland,
Speaker 3: and technically speaking, she's a critical care transport nurse at
Speaker 3: a large pediatric hospital in Philadelphia. But Asia's version of
Speaker 3: critical care transport nursing is quite unique because she's what's
Speaker 3: referred to in her line of work as a flight nurse.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: So, a flight nurse is someone who essentially goes and
Speaker 1: picks up patients in aircraft that can either be a helicopter,
Speaker 1: it could be a fixed wing, or any of those
Speaker 1: kind of vehicles that fly.
Speaker 3: In honor of International Nurses Day, I spoke with Asia
Speaker 3: about her job as a flight nurse, why she fell
Speaker 3: in love with such a risky career, and how she
Speaker 3: balances the demands of such an intense job with motherhood
Speaker 3: and everything else she's got going on in life. And
Speaker 3: if you've never heard of flight nursing, you're not alone.
Speaker 3: Because prior to taking this job. Neither had Asia, but
Speaker 3: as an experienced er nurse and a self described thrill seeker,
Speaker 3: Asia knew the moment she heard that you could take
Speaker 3: care of patients while soaring through the air that she'd
Speaker 3: found the job for her. There was only one little issue.
Speaker 3: She'd never been in a helicopter before. Tell me about
Speaker 3: that first flight you took. Were you nervous?
Speaker 1: So we got a page and they send you an
Speaker 1: alert saying this is dispatch, this is the patient and.
Speaker 2: They're like, yeah, you guys are going to go up
Speaker 2: for a flight today. And I was like what.
Speaker 1: They're like, yeah, you're going to go up in the
Speaker 1: helicopter today.
Speaker 3: And then, as she explained it, things started getting really
Speaker 3: She and her team take the elevator to the top
Speaker 3: floor of the hospital and then walk out to the helipad.
Speaker 3: It's cold and it's windy, and her adrenaline is pumping.
Speaker 1: And then the nurse who had came with that crew
Speaker 1: is like, oh, is this your first flight.
Speaker 2: I'm like, yup.
Speaker 1: She was like oh okay, Like here's the you know, I'm
Speaker 1: gonna show you the parts of the helicopter. Stay in
Speaker 1: the front, don't walk towards the back.
Speaker 2: It's kind of like when you're having a baby. They're
Speaker 2: telling you all.
Speaker 1: These things and you're like, I can't focus, like and
Speaker 1: then I must have got too far away.
Speaker 2: She was like, stay close, member. I was like, oh god,
Speaker 2: I forgot already.
Speaker 3: Fortunately for Asia, the first flight was to bring her
Speaker 3: out to a patient that they were picking up for transport,
Speaker 3: so she could focus on the flight itself, get over
Speaker 3: those first flight jitters, which for her immediately faded the
Speaker 3: minute the helicopter took off.
Speaker 2: I thought it was gonna be a lot more bumpy,
Speaker 2: but it was very smooth. It was. It was amazing.
Speaker 2: It was just amazing being like that high up.
Speaker 3: As you can imagine. Being a nurse and a helicopter
Speaker 3: is a heck of a lot different from nursing in
Speaker 3: a hospital. For one thing, it's really tightened here.
Speaker 2: So a helicopter is definitely a confined space.
Speaker 1: It is so small, even though I'm only five feet,
Speaker 1: can't even like stand up inside of it, that's how
Speaker 1: small it is.
Speaker 3: And unlike a hospital that has a well stocked supply
Speaker 3: room and all the machines and monitors and nurse could
Speaker 3: need the limited space of a helicopter means Asia and
Speaker 3: her team need to pack wisely and bring only the essentials.
Speaker 1: Our resources are pretty much what you bring in your pocket.
Speaker 1: So we wear something called a flight suit and it
Speaker 1: has about like twelve bockets on it and you can
Speaker 1: stick things in it.
Speaker 2: I have like flushes.
Speaker 1: I am like my alcohol swaps because there's not a
Speaker 1: lot of moving, Like you can't go reaching in a
Speaker 1: bunch of bags and doing a bunch of moving around.
Speaker 3: Not to mention, they're up there flying through the air.
Speaker 3: It's just her a partner and the pilot doesn't know
Speaker 3: how to do something. She can't page someone on another
Speaker 3: floor to come help. So this means that a flight
Speaker 3: nurse like Asia has to be on top of their game.
Speaker 1: One of the things that I always tell new nurses
Speaker 1: in the moment, it'll come to you.
Speaker 3: And that trust Asia has in her skills, that confidence
Speaker 3: in herself to rise to the moment stems from her
Speaker 3: training as an athlete.
Speaker 2: I played softball in high school.
Speaker 1: I used to get on the dirt and I used
Speaker 1: to be like, I hope a ball doesn't come to
Speaker 1: me right, because you don't want to make a mistake.
Speaker 1: You don't want an error. You're worried about these things.
Speaker 1: I'm like, I hope a ball doesn't come to me.
Speaker 1: And my softball coach, she said, if you're on this
Speaker 1: field and you hope the ball doesn't come to you,
Speaker 1: then we have an issue.
Speaker 2: And it's kind of the same thing in nursing.
Speaker 1: When you first start out and you're a new nurse,
Speaker 1: you're like, I hope I don't get a hard patient.
Speaker 2: I hope I don't get an IVY today.
Speaker 1: You know, it's one of those things where that that
Speaker 1: is a notice that you need to step your skills up,
Speaker 1: because when you go to work, you should be saying,
Speaker 1: no matter what comes in that door today, I know
Speaker 1: that I'm going to be able to handle.
Speaker 2: It, especially as a flight nurse.
Speaker 1: No matter what page we get that day, I know
Speaker 1: that when I get up in that helicopter, I'm going
Speaker 1: to be able to do this.
Speaker 3: If you can hear a sense of conviction in Asia's
Speaker 3: voice when she talks about nursing, there's a reason for
Speaker 3: that because nursing has always been Asia's goal.
Speaker 1: Yeah, this is one hundred percent plan A for me.
Speaker 1: I always wanted to be a nurse. I went to
Speaker 1: a high school that was called a vocational high school,
Speaker 1: so they let you study some type of vocation, and
Speaker 1: my vocation was practical nursing, which you got to graduate
Speaker 1: with your LPN.
Speaker 2: From high school. So I did that program and I
Speaker 2: was like, yeah, this is it, and then.
Speaker 1: From there I went straight to college and got my
Speaker 1: four year.
Speaker 2: Degree right away and it the rest's history.
Speaker 1: I one hundred percent once I started in it, just
Speaker 1: even that first day, I was like, this is what
Speaker 1: I want to do.
Speaker 2: This is definitely my calling.
Speaker 3: So no, this isn't one of those stories about a
Speaker 3: wayward soul trying out a bunch of different jobs before
Speaker 3: finding the one that suited them. This is the story
Speaker 3: of a woman who knew deep down exactly what she
Speaker 3: wanted to do in this life and then committed herself
Speaker 3: holy to turning that dream into a reality. So when
Speaker 3: Asia shows up to work, she's not hoping to pass
Speaker 3: the time playing on her phone. She's there because she
Speaker 3: has a job to do, her dream job.
Speaker 1: We have this thing in nursing, which is kind of
Speaker 1: I think all nursing.
Speaker 2: It's called a.
Speaker 1: Superstition where you don't say it's quiet in here or
Speaker 1: on board, because when you say those things, things commit
Speaker 1: and I'm the one that's gonna walk in like, guys,
Speaker 1: it's so quiet in here, because I'm like, we're doing this,
Speaker 1: We're gonna turn this up in here today.
Speaker 2: And people are like, Asia, why did you say that?
Speaker 1: I'm like, because we're just sitting here bored, like we
Speaker 1: need things to do. And so I am one hundred
Speaker 1: percent the person.
Speaker 2: Like I hope we get a flight today.
Speaker 3: When we come back from the break. Asia's pager goes off.
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Speaker 3: We're back with Asia B, who shows up at her
Speaker 3: dream job as a critical care transport nurse, not knowing
Speaker 3: exactly what that day is going to look like. One
Speaker 3: minute she might be working in the hospital and the
Speaker 3: next she's speeding down I ninety five in the back
Speaker 3: of an ambul or putting a stint in a patient
Speaker 3: while soaring over Washington, d C. And a medical helicopter.
Speaker 3: And for Asia, that uncertainty, that big question mark at
Speaker 3: the beginning of each day is one of the best
Speaker 3: parts of the job. But it's a job not without risks.
Speaker 3: Do you have a son, right?
Speaker 2: I do. He's a five year old and my son's
Speaker 2: name is Tate.
Speaker 3: Does your son worry about you going up in the helicopter?
Speaker 1: He's My son is five, so I don't know if
Speaker 1: he actually has grasped the idea that I am like
Speaker 1: that it's so dangerous in his mind. You know, when
Speaker 1: you're that young, Oh the beauty of innocence. You just
Speaker 1: don't understand. This is dangerous. Mommy's job is dangerous.
Speaker 3: Medical flights often occur in poor conditions and challenging locations,
Speaker 3: and while the industry has taken measures to increase the
Speaker 3: safety of their work, risks still abound. In fact, just
Speaker 3: days before I interviewed Asia, a medical helicopter went down
Speaker 3: in Nevada, killing everyone aboard. And then when I was
Speaker 3: editing this piece, a few weeks later, another medical helicopter
Speaker 3: went down in Alabama. Asia is not ambivalent to the
Speaker 3: risk of her job. She knows that every time you
Speaker 3: go up there is that chance. But she also knows
Speaker 3: that it's part of the job, a job that she
Speaker 3: feels destined to do.
Speaker 1: I think that one of the things for nurses, most nurses,
Speaker 1: nurses who care, are they're just so like selfless, right
Speaker 1: because the reality is we're here to help people, and
Speaker 1: so in our mind that's always our like, that's always
Speaker 1: at the forefront, So we don't really you can't really
Speaker 1: think of anything else in those moments.
Speaker 3: As a mom herself, Asia knows the stakes. She knows
Speaker 3: that oftentimes she's seeing families in their absolute worst moments,
Speaker 3: seeing mothers and fathers in the midst of a living nightmare.
Speaker 1: The thing about and they're saying that kind of fascinates me,
Speaker 1: I think is that you are literally taking care.
Speaker 2: Of someone at their most vulnerable time.
Speaker 1: You have the power to kind of be the difference
Speaker 1: between a good experience how they deal with this like
Speaker 1: most stressful time in their life, or adding more stress
Speaker 1: and making it terrible for them, right, and especially I
Speaker 1: think being a pediatric nurse, this is your most prized possession,
Speaker 1: right and now you are literally as a mom, feeling
Speaker 1: so helpless in this situation and you have no idea
Speaker 1: what to do, and I hear I come, and I'm like,
Speaker 1: I know more than you about your kid. Right, No
Speaker 1: one likes to hear that, But I think in those
Speaker 1: moments like empowering parents and being able to be there
Speaker 1: for them in their toughest time is probably like the best.
Speaker 1: If my patient leaves and doesn't feel like I've helped
Speaker 1: them or held their hand through this, what was the point?
Speaker 2: Then there's just really no point.
Speaker 3: So here's the thing. Well, this episode is about Asia,
Speaker 3: It's also about nurses everywhere. It's about those millions of
Speaker 3: men and women who put on their nurses scrupts each
Speaker 3: day and do their jobs, no matter how difficult or
Speaker 3: exhausting or downright dangerous it might be. At the height
Speaker 3: of the pandemic, entire cities came to a standstill as
Speaker 3: people banked pots and pans and screamed in praise of
Speaker 3: nurses and doctors and other frontline workers. Maybe you were
Speaker 3: one of those people who, at seven o'clock every night
Speaker 3: shouted out your window or stomped up and down on
Speaker 3: your fire escape in praise of our frontline workers, in
Speaker 3: praise of our heroes. And as things returned to a
Speaker 3: sense of normalcy. I'm wondering if we can't find some
Speaker 3: way to continue thinking those people, people like Asia, who
Speaker 3: we turned to in our times of need. If you'd
Speaker 3: like to thank Asia, you can check her out on
Speaker 3: our website Motheringdemama dot com. For on the job, I'm
Speaker 3: Avery Thompson.