Life Line

Photo by Christopher Warren, c/o Novant Health

Look up, and there’s a chance you might glimpse one of these women shaping the aviation landscape above Southeastern North Carolina.

From saving lives to building an enterprise to training the next generation, these women work in different sides of the industry. They all have one thing in common: At one point, they had their heads in the clouds, and now they’re flying through them.

When JESSICA NATIONS was a junior studying exercise science at East Carolina University, she thought her future was in physical therapy. Then a family tragedy changed everything.

Nations’ eleven-year-old brother suffered a traumatic brain injury after being struck in the head by a baseball. He was airlifted to the hospital, underwent two emergency surgeries, and coded twice in front of their mom.

After finishing her degree at ECU, Nations immediately began pursuing her nursing degree. She got into an accelerated nursing program and earned her Bachelor of Science in Nursing at Lynchburg University in a year.

“I knew exactly what I wanted to do,” says Nations, who is now an AirLink medical helicopter flight nurse based locally with Novant Health.

To become a flight nurse, Nations had to have at least three years of ER or ICU experience – she chose the emergency room – and had to pass the Certified Emergency Nurse exam. Flight nurses also complete numerous hours of in-house training and yearly clinicals. She started flying last June.

“The first time flying was very nerve-wracking, but different situations come into the emergency room all the time, so you’re kind of geared towards that – but that’s what I love about it,” Nations says.

Although stressful, Nations says her very first flight is her most memorable. “It was a burn patient we took to UNC, and I felt like, I finally made it, you know? I finally get to do what I’ve been meaning to do – help save lives, like the people that saved my brother,” she says.

A typical day for Nations and her team includes meeting and checking in with her partner, who is a critical care paramedic – or flight medic – and their pilots. They look at the weather, discuss how they’re feeling, and check the helicopter to make sure they have everything and are ready to go.

Their day is usually anything but typical. They could get an inner facility call, where a patient is being transported between hospitals, or a call to a scene.

“Calls can be anywhere – if there’s a fire, a shooting, a drowning, anything – we will coordinate with the LZ (Landing Zone) command, which is typically fire, and they’ll set up a location that’s safe for us to land,” Nations says.

AirLink operates twin-engine Airbus 135 and 145 helicopters that are equipped for many emergency situations, including intubating patients. “There’s a stretcher, and then we have all of our equipment, so it’s pretty tight back there,” Nations says. “We are equipped for anything, though. We’re critical care; we’re an ICU in the air.”

Nations and her husband, who is a flight medic and does the same job, enjoy time in the water with their two children when they’re not in the air.

Nations’ plans include flying as long as she can, but she’s also open to working with her feet on the ground in the future. She’s been in school pursuing her nurse practitioner’s degree for the past year and is thinking about going into trauma services as an NP.

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