Nursing News:
Michigan nurseıs dedication and desire to help the sickest patients leads to a rewarding career as a flight nurse

By CYNTHIA RAMNARACE
For some people, work is about making a fortune, finding fame or just making sure the rent check arrives on time. For flight nurse Kim Beauch, the desire to heal is an addiction, the paycheck a fringe benefit. She lives the paradox met by anyone in emergency care. You wait, anxious for the excitement of the next call. You learn to grab sleep in small gulps. The siren sounds and adrenaline gushes like a geyser, jump-starting the brain and making feet fly. You rush to the scene, you assess the injuries, you see who you can help and how. Sometimes your being there is the difference between life and death. Other times, all you can say is that you were a witness.
Itıs a precarious line to walk, that between hero and mourner. But Mrs. Beauch does it willingly, always staying optimistic. Thereıs a golden hour that people in her field talk about. If the correct care can be administered within 60 minutes of the injury, the patientıs chance of survival increases dramatically. When that patient was ejected from a car on a country road, miles from the nearest hospital, or was found lying lifeless at the bottom of a swimming pool, thereıs only one team that can make the most out of that golden hour.
Mrs. Beauch is a nurse on Life Flight, the helicopter transport operated by St. Vincent Mercy Medical Center Critical Care Transport Network. A route that would take an ambulance an hour to traverse takes Life Flight 15 minutes. Going from Toledo, Oh. to Mercy Memorial Hospital takes eight minutes.
Mrs. Beauch has proven the Stephen Covey edict that in order to get what you want in life, begin with the end in mind. She started her career as a floor nurse at Mercy Hospital in Toledo. What she wanted was to become a flight nurse.
As a floor nurse, when her patient went into cardiac arrest she had to step aside to let others care for him. She watched
in envy, her mind yearning to know what it would take to save a life. ³Iıd look at those nurses and say, I want their knowledge,² Mrs. Beauch of Lambertville said. So she got it. A licensed practical nurse (LPN), she went to school on her days off and became a registered nurse. Her goal at the time was critical care. That was until one day, while talking to her supervisor, she watched Life Flight fly past the office window. ³They take the patients we canıt care for,² Mrs. Beauch thought, and a new goal was born.
She wanted to be responsible for the broken, the bleeding, the ones whose bodies were unsure whether the fight to live was worth the effort. She researched the requirements for flight nursing and made a plan to accomplish each one. Mrs. Beauch took nursing classes by day, emergency medical technician (EMT) classes at night. She graduated and got a job in the intensive care unit of Mercy Hospital. After a year she moved to emergency care at St. Vincent. She became certified in pediatric and neonatal advanced life support, basic trauma life support and advanced cardiac life support.
When her credentials were in order, Mrs. Beauch applied for a flight nurse position. She was interviewed and offered the job that same day. That was nine years ago. Now one of her physician colleagues, Dr. James Ramseier, calls her ³one of the best flight nurses out there.² Mrs. Beauchıs husband Doug marvels at her, telling her ³no one should love going to work as much as you do.² There are several reasons she loves the job. First is the impact she can have on the patient. Second is the variety. Each call is different, and she is often in the air before she knows what kind of patient she will see. Third is the autonomy. On the ship, as Life Flight is called, thereıs no supervisor lording over her. ³I love it,² she says. ³These patients are the sickest. You help them, and you make a difference.² Itıs a satisfying job, but rarely an easy one. Sometimes the ship lifts off only to be called back to base. That could mean one of two things: either the injuries werenıt that bad, or the patient died at the scene. Sometimes what she sees in the field reminds her of those closest to her, and reminds her how precious life is. There was the 17-year-old boy, the son of an EMS worker, who had collided with a semi. The kid was ³one of ours,² in a sense, Mrs. Beauch said. Firefighters at the scene pleaded with her to do everything she could to save him. One of the rescuers was his godfather.
Mrs. Beauch looked at the boy and saw another face, that of her own 17-year-old nephew. He, too, had just gotten his driverıs license. One bad decision on the road had this boy teetering between life and death. Mrs. Beauch did her job as best as she could. She cared for the boy, keeping him alive until he reached the hospital. But the injuries had too strong a grip on him. He died shortly after.
The passion for the job comes from those times when being there made a difference. Mrs. Beauch can relate countless stories of lives saved. But thereıs one about a life changed that fills her with pride. It was Christmas Eve, and Life Flight was called to an accident scene. Mrs. Beauch cared for the woman but she succumbed to her injuries. About 21Ž2 years later, Mrs. Beauch heard about a new nurse in the emergency room. He was older and had left a successful career in banking to become a nurse. His inspiration: the compassionate care his daughter received from Life Flight.
The thank-yous are what mean the most to Mrs. Beauch. A survivor who comes to visit, well again, their life resumed. This is important in a job that requires Mrs. Beauch to have total control over her emotions. No matter how badly injured, how young, how much in pain a patient is, Mrs. Beauch has to remain professional. ³You get in there and say, ŒI have to take care of this patient,ı ³ she said. ³I never think about what the situation is, whatıs happening at the moment. I think, whereıs his family? What hospital are we going to? Then once you drop that patient off, thereıs that sense of relief or let-down. Thatıs where you have to work through it.² Mrs Beauch was among those that responded to the school bus crash in Erie Township last year. She attended a stress debriefing session for emergency responders shortly after. These groups start out lightheartedly, a joke here and there to break the tension. Then one person says something real and soon there are tears and stories and the jokes are forgotten. And the next day, Mrs. Beauch is back onboard Life Flight, her focus firm, awaiting for the next opportunity to make a difference.
³You have to make split second decisions,² she says. ³The person is critical. You need to look at the whole picture to keep them alive. Itıs all about wanting to do more for the patient.²
Printed with permission of the Monroe Evening News.