Crew members always work together on the same schedule, which means a high level of synergy among the three. Air Evac operates more than 140 helicopter air ambulance bases Kroger reports to the base in Lawrenceburg, Tenn., which is about an hour commute – an hour she said is helpful for getting in the right headspace at the beginning of a workday and decompressing afterward.Ī fight crew includes a nurse, a paramedic and a pilot who work together cohesively to respond to emergency calls as well as hospital-to-hospital transports. With Air Evac Lifeteam – which was established in 1985 and today is part of Global Medical Response – Kroeger works a unique schedule: every other 24 hours for three shifts, a 12-hour shift and then seven or eight days off. My husband was right there when I was on the call, but my son – who was 14 at the time – was in his bedroom already in bed … I said ‘Hudson, I’ve got the job!’ He gave me a big hug and said ‘Mom, you deserve it.’ He was just as excited for me as I was.” “It was late at night, 8:30 or 9, and the manager called,” Kroeger said, recalling the moment she finally got that long-awaited job offer. One evening in 2017, her opportunity finally arrived. “I applied for a job right in my hometown, and I wasn’t even considered.” But she kept pursuing her new dream, continuing to improve her understanding and knowledge of what a flight nurse needed to know while she waited for the right opportunity. During that time it was easy to get discouraged. So it took about six months to a year for me to get an interview and get a job,” Kroeger said. What came next was months of credentialing to become approved to take to the skies. “I went home that night and said to my husband, ‘What do you think about me going to work at Air Evac?’ He said, ‘If you want to do it, go for it.’” Although she said she was intimidated by the 24-shift and especially wondered how it would work with raising her children, she decided to broach the idea with husband Matt. Kroeger, however, took that to an even higher level than most when she decided to pursue flight nursing. “You can move around and do a little bit of everything.” It was just another aspect of cardiac nursing that I wanted to take a shot at.” That ability to pursue a variety of paths is part of what she loves about the field. Her career has run the gamut, from her start as a medical-surgical nurse, to a cardiac cath lab nurse, to working in medical device sales – “I was really interested in the technical aspect of the pacemakers and ICDs. Following her graduation in December 2002, she took the required state board exams and went right to work. “I’ve always enjoyed doing things for others.”Īfter high school Kroeger enrolled in the Columbia State Community College nursing program in Columbia, Tenn., and went on to earn her Bachelor of Science in nursing from American Sentinel University. I’ve always enjoyed caring for people and caring for things,” said Kroeger, who described herself as the “mothering type” even as a child. “I think maybe it’s a type of personality. She found her own way into the medical field, choosing greater flexibility in hours as nurse. I can remember being a little girl waiting outside the OR door while he was doing surgery, waiting for him to finish so we could see him for a few minutes,” Kroeger said. “He was never at family functions – he was always late, or we would run by the hospital. The mother of four had spent her entire career in nursing, a passion sparked when she was young by her grandfather, who was a surgeon. It’s something I’ve always wanted to do.” FRANKLIN LIVING- One afternoon Laura Kroeger was hard at work in her career as an ICU nurse when a colleague, who was a flight nurse, made an off-hand suggestion: that she should become a flight nurse herself.
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