Air Medical Today Episode 11 - EPNetwork

Episode 11 of the Air Medical Today Podcast has been published.  In this episode I interview Denise Landis, Chairperson, and Kris Nelson, Co-Director of the Graduate School, with the Medical Transport Leadership Institute in Wheeling, West Virginia.  I also check in with Kathy Nichols, former flight nurse with West Michigan Air Care who recently returned from a medical mission to Haiti in the First Response section.  As always news & information, listener feedback, and soon a special feature covering various aspects of the air medical and critical care transport community in each episode.

Denise Landis, is the Manager, of the Survival Flight Critical Care Transport program at the University of Michigan Health System as well as serving as Chair of the Medical Transport Leadership Institute.  She has been with Survival Flight for 25 years holding the positions of Flight Nurse Specialist, Chief Flight Nurse, and now Manager, Critical Care Transport.  Denise has been the Chairperson of MTLI since it’s inception.

 Denise has been actively involved in local, state and national boards and committees including being one of the founding members of the Michigan State Chapter of AAMS.   She continues involvement with the Michigan Chapter and also with the state chapter of the American Ambulance Association.  Denise also served on the AAMS Board of Directors and is a past president.

She is a graduate of Madonna College in nursing and completed her Masters of Science in Health Administration from Central Michigan University  and resides in Hamburg, Michigan, near Ann Arbor, with her husband Scott.

Kris Nelson is a Flight Nurse Specialist with Survival Flight and also the Co-Director of the MTLI Graduate School.  He has been with Survival Flight since 1987 and joined MTLI after completing the school himself in 2000.

Kris received his diploma as a registered nurse from Mercy School of Nursing in Detroit in 1976.  He worked at various positions in Michigan Washington, and Florida before being hired by the University of Michigan in 1985 where he first worked as a staff nurse in the Emergency Department.  His interest grew for the field of flight nursing and in March of 1987 he met all the qualifications and was hired by Survival Flight.

In 2006, Kris was honored to be a guest speaker at the Japanese Air Medical Conference in Tokyo, Japan. While in Japan, Kris visited a number of cities and spoke with many groups of physicians, nurses and medical transport personnel about his experiences with flight nursing in the United States.

Kris has been married to his wife Michele for 30 years and they have raised two sons, Matthew and Emmett. Michele and Kris currently live in a log home on five wooded acres approximately 30 miles from Ann Arbor. He enjoys working on his property, running, snowboarding, and most importantly spending time with his family.  He has a unique Twitter client that he uses at AMTC.

Kathy Nichols is a retired flight nurse from West Michigan Air Care in Kalamazoo, Michigan.  She joined West Michigan Air Care when the program was formed through the merger of the Borgess and Bronson Hospital helicopter programs in 1993.  She had been a flight nurse for 23 years and served as an emergency department nurse for 20 years prior to her flight nurse career.  She continues serving as an instructor for PALS and ACLS.  Kathy is in the blue scrubs 3rd from the left in the picture.

Kathy’s current goal is traveling independently with various groups for medical care missions in developing countries.  Her recent travels have included Tanzania in November 2009 and Haiti in late February and early March 2010.

She is a graduate of the Borgess School of Nursing and Western Michigan University with degrees in nursing.  Kathy is a past president of the National Flight Nurses Association - Michigan Chapter.  I had the honor and privilege of working with Kathy when I was the President & CEO of West Michigan Air Care from 1993-1998.