Air St. Luke'sの使命、価値、献身

I love coming to work every day knowing that I have the chance to be the best thing that ever happened to someone on the worst day of their life. And then the other thing is, you know that when you come on duty, and whatever comes within your path, you know that you are making a difference for them. Our sole mission is outcomes regionally, how we impact health of the community -- that's our biggest priority. The mission at St. Luke's is to improve the health of the people in our community, and provide transport in a safe and effective manner for them, giving them access to care in rural and remote areas -- I think that brings the healthcare to them that they might not otherwise have access to, so it really helps us support our mission, because we can reach all those patients in our area. St. Luke's Health System really supports us in our program, because they know that with the care that we provide in the aircraft we have, we're giving back to the communities -- they hold us to a higher standard, the I-CARE values that are the pillars of St. Luke's Health System: Integrity, Compassion, Accountability, Respect, and Excellence. Air St. Luke's definitely carries out that mission by going out to parts of our community that are more rural and don't have the definitive services that we have here in Boise, so we fly to smaller communities and bring patients back to St. Luke's Regional, where they're able to get definitive care, and if we're unable to give them the level of care they need here in Boise, we can fly them to an even higher level of care. What we care about is not finance, outcomes regionally, how we impact health of the community -- that's our biggest priority, not about doing it cheaper or doing more, it's about how we affect the health of this region, for example how we support critical-access hospitals, how we support local partner EMS agencies -- we're not about the bottom line, we're about doing what's right; it's easy to say, it's hard to do. Day to day we come in ready for anything -- we have no idea what's coming at us, and it could be something very routine, or it could be something completely off the rails that we haven't done in a long time, so staying sharp is key. We're an ICU in the air -- we bring a lot of critical-care medicine; we carry blood, a whole host of critical-care medicines that we wouldn't be able to carry if we were just a mobile ER; we can do surgical procedures, we carry critical-care ventilators, and a critical-care monitor that allows us to really see what's going on with the patient, and to treat patients as they would be treated in an ICU -- we're gonna take really good care of you. Boise is a pretty decent-sized metropolitan area for those who don't know it, but the truth is we don't need to go far at all -- it's less than 10 minutes flight time before we're up into the mountains of Idaho. Those are my favorite kind of calls -- the opportunity to go out and meet a patient who genuinely needs our help, not only from a medical or trauma standpoint but just can't access that medical care by any other way, is really an exciting part of my job. A lot of our rural communities are community-based hospitals that don't have a lot of resources or services, and so they really rely on Air St. Luke's to get our team to them as quickly as possible, to help them stabilize critically ill children and babies and get them to downtown -- if we weren't available, there could be outcomes that weren't as positive. Our patient population is the entire population within our operational range, and one of the things they focus on significantly is patient access -- very often we're in a situation where patient access doesn't just mean can the patient get to the hospital, it means can we get to the patient, no matter where they are, no matter what's going on. It's really heartwarming and fulfilling to know you can be there with someone at the greatest time of need and do the best you can with everything you've been given -- whether it's education, the aircraft, everything involved, we've got great care; I really enjoy the program here, it's absolutely the right mix of people, community, and operational capability that I'm really looking forward to working in. I really enjoy the challenge, and I also enjoy the teamwork -- we work so fluidly together, it doesn't matter who my partner is, we come in, we have a good day, we get the job done, we walk home with pride, and I really like that. I have not had the opportunity to work with another flight service -- I've always worked here with Air St. Luke's and Idaho Helicopters, but there's a reason I've stayed for so long: I feel like it's very much like a family -- we know each other, we know each other's names, we know about each other's families, and I think that's really important. There's so many reasons I continue to do this, and for one, I love my job -- I love St. Luke's, it's home for me, someplace I'll probably work until I retire; I love my team, I love being a nurse, I love taking care of patients, I love that human connection I get with my patients and their families. I can't imagine not being part of this program, the family atmosphere, the group -- you just can't say enough about the support from both Idaho Helicopters and St. Luke's Health System, wanting to ensure that we're in amazing aircraft, that we are safe, that we're able to give back to our communities. Thank you to St. Luke's Health System, and again, Idaho Helicopters, for allowing us to do what we love.