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For thrill-seeker Stephanie McKinney, the career of flight nurse is near-perfect with its challenges.
Liz Long
It’s impossible to miss Stephanie McKinney standing outside Famous Anthony’s in Crystal Spring in her bright blue uniform. The first thing she tells me is how, when wearing it, she’s often mistaken for an astronaut. After an hour-long lunch over cheeseburger wraps, I wouldn’t be surprised if she said she wanted to tackle the adventure of space travel in her eventual retirement.
McKinney, a native Roanoker, is a flight nurse and preceptor for Carilion Life-Guard 10. In nursing for 26 years, she began her career in the ER, which she found incredibly exciting, and worked there for a decade before officially taking flight; 16 years later, she loves it as much as the day she started.
“Every day is always different,” she says. “There is a lot of interaction with the public and a ton of autonomy, which I love. I have the best job ever!”
The Life-Guard teams are comprised of five nurses, five medics and four pilots at each base, with three bases in the region. McKinney works out of the Westlake base near Smith Mountain Lake. A typical day on the job entails 12- and 24-hour shifts and includes much more than flying the skies to help others. It kicks off with a briefing with the pilot (typically retired military), followed by an aircraft check to make sure everything they may need is there. They don’t have to wait long for flight requests; once the pilot okays the weather, they’ll soar out to help.
“We have a great group of people,” she says. “We all work well together and are with each other all the time. It’s our home away from home and we’re family.”
McKinney and her team do a lot of inter-hospital transport (not limited to Carilion, but also UVA, Duke, UNC, VCU and many others) for situations like wrecks on the interstate, rural farming accidents and more.
They’ve also started doing more heart and stroke alerts out in the field, since the helicopter is able to cut down on significant travel time when the ticking clock matters most. (An hour by car is about 20 minutes of flight; they can get to UVA in 45 minutes and the typical hour and a half drive to Danville is around 20 minutes by air.)
She and her coworkers depend on each other through the good and the bad. Their job is rewarding, but there are bad days, too. Tragic deaths, anything to do with kids and the older couples who have been together forever and lose their spouses especially hit home for McKinney.
“When we have those really bad calls, our group leans on each other. We talk a lot, which is probably the best therapy. We get through it and luckily, those bad days aren’t that often,” she says.
Everyone on the team has a project; as a preceptor, McKinney also does all the educational training on the base. Nurses must have critical care experience, and must always be up-to-date on their training, of which there is a lot. From survival and ventilator training to simulation labs (why she’s wearing her uniform at our lunch) and safety training, she’s required to stay on top of all the information. They also work with several agencies and do a lot of PR work.
She and her husband Jeff, a stay-at-home dad, have two kids–Kirsten, 14, and Jake, 12. They’re a busy family thanks to the kids’ activities, such as cheerleading and lacrosse for Kirsten, and baseball and basketball for Jake.
On rare days to herself, McKinney likes to run and train for marathons–health and wellness is incredibly important in her field, and she and her team will often run together. Now that her kids are older, she and Jeff occasionally enjoy a night out in Roanoke, exploring festivals and new restaurants.
“Growing up, I swore I’d move and never come back, but I love it here now,” she says with a laugh. “My parents are in Salem and it’s nice being so close to them.”
The family also loves to travel, ticking off Germany, France and Switzerland on their list, to name a few. But for McKinney, she finds the most excitement in thrill-seeking adventures. Obviously no stranger to heights, she’s bungee-jumped, hang-glided and parasailed; sky-diving is even on the list of future fun. Now it makes sense why she loves flying in a helicopter all day!
“I could never work in an office. I like being outside, my schedule, the work and critical care. I can’t think of anything that could make my job better–maybe fewer night shifts since those are starting to take a toll on me!”
-LIZ LONG
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