Air Medical Today Episode 17 - EPNetwork

Episode 17 of the Air Medical Today Podcast has been published.  In this episode I interview Krista Haugen, Megan Hamilton, and Teresa Pearson who are the co-founders of the Survivor's Network for Air & Surface Medical Transport.

Krista Haugen, has 20 years of nursing experience from working as an Emergency Room nurse at the Tacoma General Hospital in Tacoma, Washington and the Harborview Medical Center Level I Trauma Center in Seattle, Washington, and as an Intensive Care Unit nurse with the Harborview Burn Center and Pediatric ICU.

She worked as a flight nurse with Airlift Northwest for six years from 2000 to 2006 where she was involved in a crash off the roof of St. Peter’s Hospital in Olympia, Washington in 2005.

Krista is a 1991 graduate of the Pacific Lutheran University with a Bachelors of Science in nursing and the University of Washington - Tacoma in 1998 with a masters in nursing.

She served as the Chair of AirLift Northwest Safety Committee, post crash, and is a recipient of the peer-nominated Airlift Northwest Fleetwood-Riebe Award in 2007, which recognizes the outstanding nurse of the year.

Presently Krista is a traveling ER nurse splitting time between Hawaii and Seattle.

Megan Hamilton has worked in the EMS field since 1993 as a first responder, Emergency Medical Technician, and as a Paramedic.  She has worked with Baldwin, Kansas EMS; the Emergency Department at Stormont Vail Regional Medical Center in Topeka, Kansas; the Shawnee Mission Medical Center in Shawnee Mission, Kansas; American Medical Response in Topeka, Kansas; Yellowstone Park Medical Services in Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming; and St. John’s Medical Center in Jackson, Wyoming.

Megan completed her Bachelor of Science in Nursing in 1997 from Baker University in Baldwin, Kansas and has worked as a flight nurse with StarCare Air Ambulance in Lincoln, Nebraska; ALERT Air Ambulance in Kalispell, Montana where she was a member of the Safety Committee; and REACH Air Medical Services in Corvallis, Oregon.

Teresa Pearson is trained as an RN and Paramedic and became a flight nurse with EagleMed based in Hayes, Kansas in 2001.  In 2003 she started at LifeTeam based in Great Bend, Kansas where she was a Base Manager for three years and Program Development Manager for an additional three years until August 2007 when she was involved in a crash.

Teresa now flies part time with LifeTeam and is the Emergency Room Coordinator at the Clay County Medical Center in Clay Center, Kansas.  She will be graduating from Tabor College with her Bachelors of Science in Nursing in May 2010 and will be starting in an Advanced Registered Nurse Practitioner program in the Spring of 2011.

Teresa lives in Longford, Kansas with her husband Shane, who is a retired flight paramedic and is currently a Fire Fighter and a Mobile Intensive Care Technician with the Salina Fire Department.  They have a blended family of 5 sons and 2 daughters between the ages of 23 and 8.