Life Flight

I am the Senior Flight Nurse or you could say the Lead Flight Nurse recently employed by Life Flight coming with 29 years of nursing experience. The majority of my nursing career (15 years) was working as an Intensive Care Unit nurse and this included flight nursing also. For the past 7 years, I have been working as a full time flight nurse with a different employer and joined Life Flight early this year to become one of their first ever full time employed flight nurse based out of Hamilton.

Unlike working in the hospital, this job is varying in nature – you are never flying the same mission. Every day maybe be different with different locations and different patients with different needs.

Outside of work, I like spending time in the gym and I love fishing and playing soccer (football for some).

Q&A with Permal

What is your job with Life Flight and how long have you worked here?

I’m the first full-time flight nurse, and I joined the team last February at the Hamilton Base.

What sparked your interest in becoming a flight nurse?

I worked in the Waikato Hospital ICU for many years and in 2007 joined the ICU flight team. That involved lots of flights in air ambulances and rescue choppers and I loved it. Over time, I dropped hours at the hospital and eventually moved across to be a full-time flight nurse!

How is the addition of flight nurses improving the service?

There are lots of hospital transfers currently, which tend to only need a flight nurse, as opposed to a full flight team. With Life Flight having their own pool of flight nurses, we can just go and do it, without needing to wait for hospitals to have available nurses. It saves time for the patients, makes for a smoother process for hospitals, and opens us up to help smaller communities.

What’s the best part of the job?

Flying to many different parts of the country. I’ve lived here for 20 years, but I never would have seen so many unique places or met so many different people.

What’s the hardest part of the job?

Some days are filled with job after job, non-stop. On those days, we don’t realise the time and just keep doing what’s needed of us but will end up never taking a break. It’s hard work, but we know we’re needed and completely forget the time.

Have you ever experienced any unexpected challenges during a mission?

It happens all the time, but one memory in particular – Some years back, we were tasked on a non-urgent flight that didn’t require much preparation. No drugs were needed, and the patient’s requirements were simple.

We landed and quickly found out there was a change of plan. A seriously ill child needed to fly to Starship. As you can imagine, children require very careful planning to keep them safe, so I started talking to some people and get an idea of how to tackle the mission ahead.

I sat down and took 15 minutes to plan out the new job, took the required drugs from the local hospital, and the mission was a success. We got them to Starship in time.

The best part was one week later when we received the call to bring them back home. It put a massive smile on my face to see how well they were doing.

What personal values are essential for a flight nurse?

You need to have empathy for others, to put yourself in their shoes. For instance, when I’m transporting an elderly man, I treat him like my grandfather. It’s also important to be calm, to be patient, and to actively listen to the patient and family. The medical notes can only say so much, but the patient and family will know a lot more.

What would you like to say to our wonderful supporters?

You never know when you or someone you know may need this service, and if that does happen, you can proudly say that you are part of this amazing team. Once again, thank you, and as we say in Fijian, Vinaka Vakalevu and God Bless.