Vanderbilt LifeFlight recently recognized 26 flight crew members who have flown 1,000 or more patient missions. It is an accomplishment that takes years to obtain.
All of the individuals have more than 26,000 missions combined — making up 68 percent of the total flight volume for the program.
“To have more than 25 percent of our staff achieve this great milestone speaks volumes about their dedication to our mission of saving lives,” said Lis Henley, RN, AEMT, BSN, director of Vanderbilt LifeFlight. “One thousand patient flights are an amazing career accomplishment that just highlights the amount of experience our teams have working with critically ill patients.”
Henley added that several flight crew members have exceeded 1,000 patient mission flights. Tom Grubbs, a flight nurse who retired at the end of 2015, had completed almost 6,000 patient flights.
“It’s an achievement that takes years of hard work, training, dedication and constant education in the rapidly changing health care environment,” said Jeremy Brywczynski, M.D., medical director for LifeFlight and assistant professor of Emergency Medicine at Vanderbilt. “We have some of the highest standards in the industry for our medical flight crews and to achieve 1,000 patient missions is an accomplishment that few have done.”
Marcie Johnson, MSN, RN, is one of the flight crew members honored. She has been with Vanderbilt Lifeflight since 1994, and achieved her 1,000th patient flight in 2002 — eight years in the making.
“If you haven’t reached 1,000 flights yet, hold on tight because it does not come lightly. It comes with hard work, dedication, overcoming fears, shedding tears, making mistakes and learning from them, opportunities to grow, lives saved, and lives lost,” she said.
Here are the nurses and the year they achieved the 1,000 patient mission flights:
LifeFlight 1 (Vanderbilt and Lebanon, Tennessee Base)
Jeanne Yeatman, MBA, RN, EMT — 1997
Kevin High, MHPE, MPH, RN, EMT — 1998
Danny Bridges, BSN, RN — 2010
Marcie Johnson, MSN, RN — 2002
Wilson Matthews, BSN, RN — 2001
Tim Morman, MSN, RN — 2013
Chris Rediker, MSN, RN — 2005
Greg Wamack, MSN, RN – 2016
LifeFlight 2 (Tullahoma, Tennessee Base):
Judy Dreaddy, MSN, RN – 2001
LifeFlight 3 (Clarksville, Tennessee Base):
Lis Henley, BSN, RN — 2005
Joe Brentise, RN — 2015
Teresa Fulwood, BSN, RN — 2015
Tony Smith, DNP, RN — 2014
Steve Wilkinson, BSN, RN – 1999
LifeFlight 4 (Mt. Pleasant, Tennessee Base):
Keela Dement, BSN, RN — 2011
Michael Gooch, MSN, RN — 2010
Amy Moore, BSN, RN — 2015
Kevin Nooner, MSN, RN — 2012
Marsha Roberts, MSN, RN — 2008
Erica Woodside, MSN, RN — 2015
Neil Worf, MSN, RN – 2000
LifeFlight 5 (Murfreesboro, Tennessee Base):
Kathy Nippers, RN — 2016
Tim Hurst, MSN, RN — 2002
Mark Tankersley, MSN, RN – 2001
LifeFlight 10 (Nashville Airport, Airplane Base):
Sheldon Dreaddy, MSN, RN — 2008
John Kennedy, BSN, RN – 2013
