Perfect Landing

I was still fairly new at the Nursing Supervisor position, probably about two years being in that middle management role when something happened for which I’d never been trained nor had I been educated how to handle this emergency. My orientation to the position lasted only two days. Half of that first day of orientation, I followed Stella Wolak, a long time supervisor who rose from the rank of an anesthesia nurse at the old Frick Hospital located on the main street of Mt. Pleasant. The second half of the day, I was in charge of half of the hospital.

My second day of learning, I was in charge of the entire hospital. Stella was in the building in case I had any questions. My third and fourth day as supervisor, I was alone, in charge, and responsible for the entire hospital for the entire weekend. I was kind of thrown to the wolves in a sink or swim situation.

There were some hard and fast guidelines, but much of the time, a supervisor had to use past history, skills, intuition, and judgment when new situations arose or would fall into gray areas. Trial and error were sometimes my best teachers. Thus an incident for which there was a policy, but I wasn’t made aware of it. I had no inkling that one existed.

The emergency room was very busy with a variety of illnesses and accidents when they got a call that there was an auto accident with multiple injuries. Because our helipad was closest landing zone, the crew was transporting two of the most critical patients to be picked up there. Our helipad is only able to handle one helicopter at a time. I was in a quandary. Both helicopters would be landing within seconds of each other. What to do?

It was afternoon shift and the small parking lot adjoining the helipad was empty, there was the wind sock for the helipad and the fire department would already be there, so I had them cordon off the parking lot to accommodate the second incoming air ambulance. The helicopters landed, the patients arrived, were loaded, and the helicopters took off without incident. I thought I had done a good job, but the next day management pulled out their massive rule book and said, “There’s a policy about two helicopters landing. The second is to use a second site at nearby Frick Park.” Policies in a book are useful only if people are made aware of them.

I took the brow beating and managed to supervise for another twenty years or so. I still think I did a good job with the limited experience that I had under my belt.