Flight Dispatch Communications Supervisor, Erin Johansen

[00:00] Michelle: Erin Johansen is a communications supervisor for a medical flight company and she's got her finger on the pulse of the air transport industry.

[00:10] Having grown up in the flight business, she is intimately familiar with each position she oversees.

[00:16] Imagine a situation room of sorts.

[00:19] During her 12 hour night shifts, Erin often navigates a bustling control room where 15 to 20 medical flights are in progress at any given time.

[00:29] On particularly hectic nights, that number can soar into the 30s.

[00:35] Picture a team of eight flight coordinators, each surrounded by multiple monitors, managing calls from hospitals for inter-facility transfers, law enforcement inquiries for missing persons on scene emergencies, and requests for fire suppression.

[00:52] With operations extending seven states and over 60 bases from Hawaii to Colorado, the environment can become quite chaotic.

[01:04] Erin is the backbone of this operation. If communication fails in any way, it could threaten safety or lead to delays in patient transport.

[01:14] She must be adaptable and she must be vigilant, knowing that the trust she builds with her colleagues and customers is essential to effective communication.

[01:23] This excellent communication in turn reinforces that trust, creating a win win for everyone involved.

[01:32] In the five minute snippet: It's the city of trees.

[01:51] Well, good morning, Erin. Welcome to the podcast.

[01:54] Erin: Thank you. Thank you so much for having me.

[01:56] Michelle: It's my pleasure. And I'm excited because we met on Instagram through my sister Jennifer, who is a longtime friend of yours, and I put out my APB that I needed a dispatcher and so she tagged you and the rest is history.

[02:14] So let's just get into it. Tell me,

[02:18] what is your story? Who is Erin Johansen?

[02:22] Erin: Well, that's me.

[02:24] I work for Reach Air Medical. I'm a flight coordinator, so I'm a communications supervisor, actually. So we have our little dispatch center here in Sacramento and I say little, but there's about 30 of us that work there.

[02:41] I am a communications supervisor, so I'm in charge of the shift. There's usually about six, seven or eight people that work on the shift.

[02:49] Yeah. And I've just, I've been working here at Reach for probably almost nine years now.

[02:54] That's where I met your sister Jenn. And her and I became good friends probably about then and just kind of took off from there. One of my favorite people at the company and yeah, that's my story.

[03:06] I live here in Sacramento. I'm married with a couple of corgis. I was a medic in the Air Force before I came over to Reach. And now I just really enjoy watching aircraft and saving people the best way I can.

[03:19] Michelle: That's phenomenal. Yeah. Jenn said you're one of her favorite people too. And she helped me out on the five-minute snippet, which we'll play at the end. So I was like, tell me a little about Erin that I don't know.

[03:32] So we'll get into that, but let's get into some of the demands of the job. So you gave me a long list and I had no idea. No idea.

[03:47] So we're going to get a little bit more specific in your job demands and some of the things that you said you did were very interesting.

[03:56] So you intake transport requests from hospitals and transfer centers for inter-facility transfers.

[04:04] You take 911 calls from public safety answering points and I want to hear about that. And then one of the other things that you do is fire suppression requests.

[04:17] So talk about those things.

[04:20] Erin: Yeah, definitely start with interfacility. It's probably the most common type of request we get. You know, we have, we have bases all over seven different states. And you know, there's a lot of hospitals in those seven different states and a lot of hospitals that are in rural access areas that don't have the resources that they need.

[04:36] They don't have the services at those hospitals that they need.

[04:39] So they call us and say, hey, we have this patient here, you know, that needs to get to a cath lab or needs to get to neuro or an ICU bed or something like that.

[04:48] And so they call us to move their patient from their lower level of care to a higher level of care. Lots and lots and lots in you know, those mountain areas, those rural areas.

[04:59] You don't see a lot of inter-facility requests, say in, in the major cities. We don't get a lot of requests from the hospitals here. Coming out of Sacramento or out of the Bay Area, it's usually the smaller hospitals, but we get the request directly either from the hospital or from a transfer center that's affiliated with that hospital.

[05:17] They will call in the request to us. Usually we have three different methods that they can request us. The first one is calling, so they will call us, which is pretty self explanatory.

[05:26] They'll call in a request to us and we have designated roles in the room. So we'll have a call-taker that answers the phone and they start building the request.

[05:33] They'll put the sending and receiving hospital into our computer software. And then a dispatcher will see the call getting built on the screen and then immediately assign the closest aircraft to the hospital and get them going.

[05:47] Meanwhile, while that dispatcher is toning out the base, they'll tell them the sending hospital name the receiving hospital, the weight of the patient as weights and balances, really important for the aircraft.

[05:58] And then if there's been any safety decline, so another air company has declined it for weather or safety reasons of any kind. We always want to notify the base as soon as possible.

[06:08] And then while the dispatcher is doing that, the call-taker is still intaking the rest of the information, which is usually the clinical information. We call that our secondary information because it's not pertinent to toning out the base.

[06:20] We don't ever provide clinical information upon a tone-out. We don't ever want that to influence a pilot or crew's decision to take a call. So it's all strictly based on the locations and the weights and balance to see if we can see safely accommodate that patient.

[06:36] The two other ways that we get the inter facility request, we have an online database.

[06:42] So hospitals and transfer centers can actually like request an aircraft online.

[06:47] And there's just like a little software they go into and they plug the information in and it just sends it over to our cad. And that's, that's probably new within the last couple years.

[06:55] It's, it's really, really cool because we'll assign the aircraft and just start toning them and the hospital can see on their end on their computer, oh, so and so has been assigned to this call.

[07:05] They're flight checking or so and so is accepted. This is their ETA. It's super quick. It's really nice because all that information is right there in front of us. It saves the hospital a call.

[07:15] It saves us a call. And then there's one other method that some of the hospitals have as well too that we're working on expanding as well, is they have a button.

[07:23] They have a button they press. It's like a little walkie-talkie and they just press a button and it sends something to our CAD that says this hospital is requesting you for an error aircraft.

[07:32] And so we'll get an aircraft looking and then we immediately call that hospital and then gather all the secondary information. So it's pretty fancy. It's gone up in the times.

[07:40] That's crazy.

[07:43] Michelle: That is crazy.

[07:44] Erin: When I first started at the company, when, you know, Jenn and I both came from the smaller company before we were acquired, we came from Calstar. And I know when Jenn started, there was probably only seven or eight bases.

[07:54] And when I started, Jenn was actually just taking over two new bases that we had just opened up. And that back then was way different. It was only, we were only in Northern California.

[08:05] We only had, you know, so many hospitals calling us, and now It's, we're in seven states and it's just, we have over 60 bases. And so you have hospitals calling from all over the country, and we have bases out in Hawaii, and that's kind of new to us.

[08:21] And it's really interesting when they call in a request to us because, you know, there's all these apostrophes and all these long spellings, and I'm like, what the heck? Oh, yeah, what's the name of this hospital?

[08:30] And you're just, you know, this patient's name or whatever it may be. It's just, it's interesting, but it's pretty overwhelming because we will get, you know, the inter-facilities, like I said, those are typically our

[08:43] I definitely say our highest amount of calls is the inter-facilities because those patients need to be transported one way or another versus a scene call, which I'll get into as a 911.

[08:51] Those patients could get canceled. You know, it could be faster to go ground. They could find someone else. It could be XYZ reasons. But the inter facilities almost, almost always go as long as weather's permitting.

[09:01] And so we'll get, you know, five, six, seven calls out of the same hospital. Five, six, seven patients out of the same hospital, sometimes within an hour. And it's just, you know, the luck of the draw.

[09:12] You know, patients are just rolling into this hospital that has a, you know, two ER beds and they need to get out of there as soon as possible. So now when it comes to scene calls, those are the 911 calls that we were referring to.

[09:24] So thankfully, I don't know if I could handle it, but thankfully, we don't ever get calls like, from the public for 911.

[09:31] I'm not usually ever talking to, like a family member calling in an emergency for their, for their family member or their loved one. I'm talking to the PSAPs, the Public Safety answering points.

[09:42] So those are going to be the fire departments, the 911 agencies, the police departments, sometimes ground providers, sometimes other air providers. It just depends. But those PSAPs call in the request to us and say, hey, we have A, you know, motor vehicle accident that we need picked up.

[09:59] And scene calls are quick. Scene calls are very quick to intake because we get very limited information, right? You don't know. You don't know the patient's name, you don't know their date of birth.

[10:07] And honestly, it doesn't matter, right? We're just going to go. But we get a location of the incident, typically in coordinates is the best way to get it. Our CAD can actually convert multiple different formats of coordinates, so it doesn't matter how a customer gives them to us.

[10:22] And then our CAD will convert it to the format that our aircraft need, and then the aircraft will just plug them into their little GPS and on they go.

[10:30] And so it's pretty fascinating. Scene calls, like I said, are taken and assigned and going within like 90 seconds.

[10:38] So they'll call it in, same thing. The call taker takes the call, they build the location. The dispatcher sees the call and immediately starts toning it out. When they tone it out, 

[10:48] They're toning out the base and saying, you know, Reach whatever scene, flight request. You're going to this county in this city to give the pilot a general idea of where they're going.

[10:58] And then we give them a heading or a bearing, so which direction to go to, and then for how many miles? And so that'll help the pilot, and they plug it into their little software, and then they can look, you know, this heading at this many miles, and it'll help guide them on exactly where to go.

[11:12] And then they can plug in the coordinates too, if they want.

[11:15] I have TS and scene calls. All the pilots and crews are getting pages to their crew phones as well, too, that have the coordinates, that have the city, the county.

[11:23] So there's plentiful information that everyone is getting. I know some companies across the Midwest, they'll just give like a city only, and then the pilots are just supposed to start heading that way, and then they get the coordinates from the people out in the field.

[11:37] This is actually a lot better, right, because the pilot gets the coordinates at the beginning of the time, and the pilot can plug in the coordinates to their software in the aircraft and then just head directly to those coordinates.

[11:46] So, and then, same thing, we want to know about safety issues. We want to know if another aircraft has declined it for any reason. We want to know if there's down power lines or if the scene is safe, you know, if it was like a traumatic situation of any kind.

[11:59] Typically, they're landing us not directly on the scene. Sometimes they're landing usually somewhere away, or, you know, they try and avoid shutting down a highway if they don't have to, but they will shut down a highway for us to land on a highway.

[12:11] Or they'll have us land at, like, the local hospital's helipad or an airport or something like that. And then fire suppression. That's something we just started doing a few years ago.

[12:21] So we have a couple bases that have the capability of attaching, like, the water bucket to the bottom of the helicopter that you see in the movies and stuff. It's not a ginormous one.

[12:29] We don't have these big, like, military tankers or anything, but they have these buckets. And what they do is they. Those bases staff a firefighter at the base, along with our pilot and our medical crew.

[12:40] So we're capable of still running medical transports. And if we get a medical call, we leave behind the firefighter, and then our medical team and our pilots still go. Still do the medical transport.

[12:50] But if we get a fire suppression call, then typically you just technically only need the pilot and the firefighter. But sometimes the medical crew will tag along for safety reasons just to help guide.

[13:01] But when they run those calls, they depart out of the base and they go, they land somewhere safe and they secure the bucket to the bottom of the aircraft, and then they lift it and they fly over to some sort of reservoir or something and retrieve the water with the bucket,

[13:15] and then they go and drop it on usually small, small brush fires and stuff. Like I said, we're not big tankers. You're not going to see our Reach medical helicopters out on the big, huge fires, but they're out there doing their thing and they're putting out fires all the time,

[13:27] which is cool. That is, we probably have three bases that have been doing it for a little while now, so hopefully that's expanding a little bit more. And then they also.

[13:39] They have, like, the most avionic or most advanced avionics in their aircraft, too. So they're just probably our fanciest aircraft that we have, which is really nice for those. So those are the three main types of calls we run.

[13:50] We also do, I don't know if I mentioned this. We also do search requests, which is, 

[13:56] searching for, you know, missing individuals. Get a lot of those up in, like, the Lake Tahoe area. We get a lot of those out in Colorado. Basically,

[14:04] We'll get a call and, you know, there's a missing hiker or a missing snowmobile or someone that hasn't been able to find their way back, typically, and hopefully uninjured.

[14:13] It's just someone that they're trying to find and can't find. So get a lot of those out in the desert too, in the middle of Nevada. And so we'll just get a request and we'll get a description of the individual and then we'll fly out to those locations.

[14:25] If we can locate the individual, then we will guide the ground resources. This actual search and rescue personnel, we don't do rescue per se because we don't have like a hoist capability in our aircraft, but we do searches.

[14:38] So we'll look for the individuals and then we'll send a helicopter out to those locations, they locate the individual, and then they can give that location, that specific location to ground to get to them.

[14:48] That being said, if the patient, you know, needs medical attention and we can find somewhere to safely land that doesn't require our crew to do something, some sort of extraneous extrication, then, you know, for the safety of our crew and our pilot, then we'll self land somewhere and transport the patient.

[15:05] We'll also do lift tickets, which is where we basically, I explain it as we land at the bottom of a hill, we pick up search and rescue personnel and we put them on board our aircraft and we fly them up the hill.

[15:19] So we'll get them closer to the scene than they could do by foot or by vehicle. And so we'll get them as close as possible. And sometimes we do it a lot.

[15:27] In Colorado, you'll see us go up and down a mountain probably five, six, seven times, just flying personnel, getting them closer and closer to the, to the individual that needs rescuing.

[15:37] And then our job's done.

[15:39] Michelle: Yeah, so easy, easy.

[15:40] Erin: Yeah, those are.

[15:41] Michelle: And then our job's done.

[15:42] Erin: Yeah. Those are the types of calls we run. Sorry. Hopefully that.

[15:45] Michelle: Oh my gosh,

[15:47] that's so crazy. I mean, I'm sitting here with my jaw just wide open like, what the heck? That is amazing. And so you said earlier that you work with a team.

[15:59] So on any. You work night shift. And I want, I want to talk about that because you work kind of a very,

[16:07] A different schedule, but we'll talk about that. But so who are your team members and in the room with you?

[16:15] Erin: That's a good question. So our little dispatch center is called Flight Guard. So that's just like a, you know, you gotta have a, you have gotta have a call sign when you're talking to your crew, right?

[16:24] You don't just say dispatch, you know, reach seven, dispatch or dispatch, reach seven. You say Flight Guard is our call sign. Back in my Calstar days, we were, we were Calcom, but we're called Flight Guard.

[16:35] And typically we have different roles in the room. So as I was saying earlier, we have like a call taker and a dispatcher. So we have on a given shift about seven people.

[16:48] The ultimate goal is to have eight or nine, including me as a supervisor. So basically we have our aircraft divvied up into different regions because we have so many aircraft, we have to, you know, share the workload.

[16:59] And those reason those regions have changed over time just depending on call volume in those those regions. Northern California is our busiest region of the states. We dispatch, it's just a lack of ambulance resources and a lot of rural access hospitals out of this area.

[17:14] But we have our, our aircraft, our bases divvied out into regions. So we have our region one, which is our Northern California bases, and then our region two is the Central Valley down to SoCal, and that includes Hawaii as well too.

[17:26] And then our region three is our fixed wing. And then our rotors that fall in Oregon, in Nevada. And so we have those divvied out. We've moved them around a few times.

[17:36] We used to have some of our Central Valley bases up in our NorCal region and we had to move them to SoCal because just the call volume was just too high and we had to split the workload up amongst the dispatchers in the room.

[17:48] We never want one person to just be, you know, getting demolished in there while the other person's, you know, not running a bunch of calls. So we divvy the workload out pretty evenly and it works out pretty well.

[17:59] So what we have is per region, we have a call taker and a dispatcher in every region. We have the phones organized so when people call in, they're routed by area code.

[18:10] So if it's like a SoCal area code calling in, it's going to ring to that region and so those regional people can answer it. And so that call taker will answer that call and then that dispatcher will start toning it out while the call taker is taking the call.

[18:23] We're upgrading to a new phone system that's actually just going to ring directly to them and only to them. And then if they can't answer it, then send someone else in the room can answer it.

[18:31] So we have them divvied out into the three different regions. And then we have. So that's three call takers, three dispatchers. The ultimate goal is you get everyone up to being a dispatcher.

[18:42] So I can backtrack a little bit as far as how that works. So we have everyone that gets hired on. They're, they start as like a flight coordinator trainee and they go through a little academy that's probably about five, six weeks long.

[18:55] Very, very good academy. We have a great training manager, Pam. She does a wonderful job with them. And so by the time they come to the floor, they, they join our shifts.

[19:03] They join someone that they're going to be training with. They're already answering calls and building calls out and they know exactly what to do to build a call.

[19:11] So they do that for several months until they get, you know, oriented with, with our entire service area. It's usually just, you know, getting them that chair time. They know how to build a call.

[19:21] It's just knowing how to answer all the oddities that also call in because not every time that phone rings, it's just a brand new call or just a customer getting an update.

[19:30] It could be anything. It could be, you know, highway patrol calling, asking questions. It could be, it could be family members, it could be anything calling in. So it's learning how to handle those.

[19:41] And then they do that training on the floor probably for about, I don't know, five, six months or so. And then once they're familiar with their service area and what dispatcher this call goes to and what dispatcher that call goes to, then they move on to their, their radio training.

[19:56] So after they complete that first level of training, they become this flight coordinator one and then they move on to radio training. So they start actually dispatching the aircraft. And all said and done, it probably takes about a year or so before someone is fully qualified to be out on their own and dispatching aircraft on their own.

[20:14] And then once they get to that, it's called a Flight Coordinator 2 for me, I did all that and then I became a lead of the shift. And so I was a shift lead.

[20:22] And then after several years of doing that, then I became the supervisor. So I act as like a top cover in the room. I am responsible for keeping eyes on every aircraft that we have and every call that's going on.

[20:34] And so that way these guys can just focus on their particular regions, their particular aircraft. They don't particularly need to be jumping into other people's regions and helping them out because that's what I'm there for.

[20:47] If we have a perfectly staffed shift and we have two people per region, we'll also have a top cover person in the room so they can do more of that.

[20:54] So I can focus more on administrative roles. But I still always have eyes on everything because I can't help it. I want to make sure that, you know, everyone's, everything's running smoothly and everyone's safe and needs the help that they can get.

[21:05] So. But yeah.

[21:07] Michelle: Wow.

[21:08] So, Erin,

[21:10] you talked about that you had done all of those jobs and as a supervisor now did that help you to be able to see, like, what those job responsibilities are like as a supervisor, you know, what those folks are supposed to be doing?

[21:28] Erin: Oh, yeah, absolutely.

[21:30] Yeah. There's no way I could come into this job. And I mean, people do it, I'm sure, and other dispatch centers and stuff, but it would be a struggle to come in, just get hired on as a supervisor per se.

[21:42] Say I was a supervisor at 911 somewhere and then I came over here and got hired on as a supervisor. It's a huge learning curve. Yeah. People are always a little starstruck when they come into the room just because it's, it's much different than what they anticipated.

[21:55] We have a lot of people that work in our room that came from ambulance dispatch and it's just way different than even those guys. That's probably the most experience you can have coming into 

[22:05] Our job is working in ambulance dispatch before, but it's still way different. You know, we have, we have seven computer monitors because we have our radios, we have multiple CADs up, we have multiple tracking softwares.

[22:17] Like you just have to watch aircraft in seven different states. So you really have to have trackers all over your screen. So you can monitor every single aircraft at any given time.

[22:27] So had I not have gone through that and had I not have become, you know, a subject matter expert on our service area and on the call taking responsibilities and the dispatching responsibilities, like, I don't think I'd be the leader that I am today because I would definitely need to know those things pretty well.

[22:45] So, you know, we have a really, really great team. We're really, really close knit on night shift and we, we can bounce ideas off of each other.

[22:54] It's just one of those jobs that's not very black and white, obviously, you know, in the medical field in general. Right. It's never just black and white.

[23:01] Michelle: Yeah.

[23:02] Erin: And you have to rely on each other in the room. We rely on each other on the field. We communicate to our crews and pilots constantly because we just, we're always bouncing ideas off each other.

[23:12] And that's one thing, you know, our team is very good about. We're very good at communicating to each other and they're good at coming to me when they're, you know, hey, how do you think I should do this?

[23:21] Or who do you think I should send on this? Or you know, this person's so many miles out, but they're going to be delayed because they have to get fuel.

[23:26] And so we're always just bouncing ideas off each other. And I'm pretty much involved in almost every call in the room, just whether they're asking me questions or I'm giving input.

[23:36] And it's never a, a micromanaging situation, it's just working as a team. So it's a really, really good system we have.

[23:43] Michelle: Yeah, that's one of the things I always admired about night shift is the teamwork. And I don't know if it was because,

[23:51] you know, in hospitals there are certainly less resources available at night. You know, you don't have all the administrative folks, you don't have, you know, social workers.

[24:03] And so they really rely on each other to be all those people and to do all those things and super tight knit groups. I only worked night shift for two years and it was a total shit show because I was like not a night shift person.

[24:21] I don't know how you guys do it. And Jenn worked night shift for 20 plus years and yeah, and I'm just like, nah, it's not for me. I always felt sick.

[24:33] Wow, that's amazing. Okay, so one of the things that came up when you were talking about, well, you have fixed wing, you have helicopters and you have ground. So how in depth, like how much training do you get into knowing these different helicopters and planes in their

[24:55] Competencies, I guess, like what they can do, how much weight they can take. Like, do you memorize that? Do you have like a chart somewhere on, you know, this certain plane can have this many personnel, this much weight.

[25:08] How does that work?

[25:09] Erin: You know, great questions because we do have a lot of different airframe.

[25:14] Yeah, back when I started it was, you know, one type of helicopter and one type of plane. And now we have, I don't know, five or six different types of helicopters and multiple different planes.

[25:23] So I leave a lot of that to the pilots to make that decision as far as, you know, weights and balance and things like that, that it is ultimately their call.

[25:31] Every airframe is different as far as what type of, you know, how heavy of a patient they can take or how heavy of equipment they can take. And it's all  dependent on so many factors.

[25:42] You know, how far in distance they're going on the transport, how much fuel they have to put on. You know, if they're going long distance, you know, we're doing a Fresno to San Francisco, then on a helicopter, that's pretty far.

[25:54] And they have to pack on a lot of fuel for that. So if they're adding a lot of fuel, then they can't take as heavy of a patient. You know, if that patient's on like an ECMO and they're intubated and all these things, then it's going to add a lot more weight to the aircraft weights and balance of the crew themselves.

[26:09] You know, the patient, if there's a ride along all those things. We don't begin to know, you know, in our dispatch center what their, what their capacity is going to be as far as, you know, how heavy of a patient they can take or what kind of equipment.

[26:23] We take a lot of prisoners from the prison system and then they have, they require a guard. And so that, that's always a constraint, I'd say, because typically, you know, you'll have this 200 pound patient and then a 200 pound guard plus, and you're like, well, that's 400 pounds.

[26:39] Like that's a lot of weight you're putting in the back of a very small helicopter, plus all their medical equipment on top of that. And then you have our two crew members.

[26:47] So it's not even just the weight of all this. It's, it's the weights and balance, right? You want the aircraft to be balanced with the weight on board.

[26:55] So above my pay grade completely. As far as who the pilot determines all that. They have their little software and stuff like that. But you know, there's, there's typically some of our aircraft have a cutoff like our, some of our fixed wing, like our King Air 200-00, they have a cutoff of 350 pounds.

[27:13] So some of our aircraft, it's more so the size, not the weight. It's. Can you physically get this patient to fit in there comfortably? You know, can the medical crew still access this patient and perform the medical care that they need based on this patient's size?

[27:27] You know, are they, you know, it's a very tight fit in those helicopters. I'm sure you've seen them. Oh yeah, very, very tight. And we have some plane, the Pilatus, the PC12, they're single engine aircraft.

[27:38] They have a wider door, it's a little bit wider inside. So those patients, I've seen us take patients into the five hundreds before. You're not going to see that on a helicopter.

[27:48] But some of our rotors, I've seen them take patients in the four hundreds before. It just depends. It depends on the type, you know, the kind of power that that aircraft has, what altitude they're flying at, the weight balance, how much fuel they need to take on, et cetera.

[28:02] So basically what we do in dispatch is, you know, we get the, sending, receiving the patient's weight and we tone-out the base and let them tell us. Sometimes the, the flight crew will call in and say, hey, can you get measurements on this patient?

[28:13] A lot of times we're already doing that in dispatch. If we know, you know, 350 is kind of that range where, if it's that or above, we start to get measurements on the patient or at least get a height.

[28:23] So then we can kind of know what we're working with. If we're taking specialized equipment like an ECMO or a balloon pump, then we want to know the make and model.

[28:31] So the crew has an idea of just clinically, if it's something they can handle. But then also size wise, we want to know how big it's going to be and if we can safely secure it.

[28:41] If it's something that's on a cart, you know, we can't detach from the cart, then we have no way of securing it. We don't want something on wheels on our aircraft.

[28:49] But if it's something that can be detached from a cart, then we might be able to find a way to take it. But yeah,

[28:55] as far as weights and balance, it's case by case on every single call going back to the different airframe we have.

[29:03] It is a requirement of us to learn all the airframe in our dispatch center. So we have to know every single, every single helicopter we have, every single type of plane we have because it is important in the dispatching sequence.

[29:15] So for instance, like our single engine helicopters, they're, they're VFR only,

[29:20] so they can only fly with visual flight rules. So they have to be able to see so many miles with the naked eye in front of them. So if a VFR aircraft declines a call for weather, then the dispatcher has to know that we're not done there, that we need to move on and check with an IFR aircraft,

[29:38] which is one that uses instruments. So that's like those are the twin engine helicopters that we have. That'd be like if you're flying on a commercial airline and you know every time you're flying on a commercial airline, you're always flying through the clouds, right?

[29:52] They can't physically see through those clouds. They're using their instruments on the plane to guide them through the clouds. So it's, they're using their autopilot, right? They put the location in and it's pretty much flying for them right through the clouds.

[30:04] Because there's no way you could see through those clouds to guide yourself in the sky. So our helicopters can do that. And our flight coordinators have to know when it's safe and when it's appropriate to check with another aircraft.

[30:17] So if my IFR rotor has declined the flight for weather, then we're not going to check with another aircraft because that's the highest capability for our helicopters. So it goes VFR, IFR.

[30:28] And then if the distance is appropriate for a fixed wing, you know, we're not going Visalia to Fresno or something that's super short distance, then we're going to send a fixed wing.

[30:37] Visalia to Fresno would probably be Fresno Airport to Fresno airport. So that wouldn't really make sense because there wouldn't be any flight involved. But if it is fixed wing appropriate, then we'll move on to a fixed wing and then try and send them.

[30:49] All of our fixed wing are capable of flying IFR. They all have the autopilot on it. And they can all fly through the clouds at a higher altitude.

[30:56] Those are important things for us to know because like I said, it just aids in the dispatch process. And it's also really important because we outsource calls to other companies.

[31:07] So we have this no "patient left behind concept." So if there's a call and we don't have an available resource to handle it, not that we declined it for weather, but if we don't have like an available resource that could handle it, they're all busy on calls or they're out of service and we'll call another company.

[31:24] Even if they're a competitor, we'll call them and say, hey, do you have an aircraft that can look at this call. Because at the end of the day it's the patient.

[31:31] That's what matters, right? We want to get the patient moved. So we'll call another company. But if our VFR aircraft has declined it, we'll still call a company and say, hey, do you have an IFR available because our VFR rotor just declined this, or do you have a fixed wing available?

[31:43] Because we don't have one available and both of our rotors declined it. So it's important for us to have that information to, you know, be able to tell other companies.

[31:52] And the biggest one I skipped right over this is to tell our pilots, you know, so and so declined this. So we want to tell, when I tone-out my IFR base that they have this request, I want to be able to tell them that this VFR base, this single engine aircraft,

[32:05] declined this call for weather and where they declined the weather. So that way they can look into this specific weather. And if they're not seeing this weather, then the pilots, we can connect them on the phone and they can do what's called a pirep, which is a pilot report,

[32:18] and get that information from one another and they can discuss the call in case, in case a pilot doesn't see it or, you know, someone checked a camera and saw it or got a pilot report from another pilot.

[32:28] So yeah,

[32:29] very cool.

[32:30] Michelle: Wow. I remember, well, I had Jenny on this show. She was actually my third guest and second guest, sorry. And we talked about weather and you know, weather is one of your challenges when flying.

[32:44] And I remember when she got her pilot's license,

[32:48] she showed me the app that she has and the weather app and it was unlike anything that I'd seen, you know, technologically.

[32:58] So what kind of technology do you use to kind of guide when you guys are going through different weather patterns?

[33:06] Erin: You know, that's a good question. That's definitely going to be more of a pilot kind of thing. We, we have tools that we can use. There's aviation weather, there's windy.com, there's a bunch of different resources that we can use to look at the weather.

[33:19] But I try and stay steer clear of them, if I'm being honest. Just because I don't, it's never going to be my decision when it comes to the weather.

[33:27] I want to give that decision completely to the pilots and not have any sort of influence. You know, I'm never going to be like, but it's showing VFR and they're declining it and saying it's IFR..

[33:38] I just, I don't ever want to have too much knowledge, you know, but I like knowing and I like looking at the cameras and things like that.

[33:45] So we do have these resources available to us that we can utilize. It's good information. I'm very much aware of what our capacities are for, for wind, like, what kind of wind we can fly in, what kind of storms we can fly in, what kind of temperatures we can fly in.

[33:58] Like, I'm aware of that, but it's not a requirement of our job because it's the requirement of the pilot's job to know that. That's why Jenn is so familiar with it because she does have her pilot's license and stuff.

[34:08] And, you know, as a flight nurse it's good for them to know too, you know, if they're ever, if the med crew is ever on board an aircraft or even before they lift from their base and, you know, a pilot accepts a call and they're just like,

[34:20] you know, I'm not feeling super comfortable with this weather. Like, this just does not, not look okay, or, you know, these gusts are at 50 knots or whatever, whatever the crew is feeling uncomfortable about, then the crew absolutely can say no to a flight.

[34:34] You know, we have this three to say yes, one to say no. You know, and it requires all three personnel on the aircraft to say yes to a flight for any reason.

[34:44] You know, safety, weather, whatever it may be. And if one person says no, I'm not comfortable with this weather, then we turn it down. So it doesn't have to be the pilot that says no to the weather.

[34:53] It can be the medical crew. So those guys out there, absolutely. It's good for them to know sometimes,

[35:00] sometimes in Flight Guard, we'll get, you know, it'll get a little uncomfortable where we have, you know, one base that's declining a call and then another base that's accepting a call.

[35:08] And those are kind of where our ears perk up. You know, our red flag kicks in and it's just kind of in the same area, right. It's not the same call.

[35:16] So remember I said earlier, right, if a, if an IFR declines a flight, we're not going to check with an IFR. But if I get a patient coming out of one hospital in Sacramento and then a patient coming out of a different hospital in Sacramento, technically I'm not.

[35:31] I'm having two different IFRs check that. And if one IFR accepts one and one IFR declines one, then that needs to be on me in the room to be like, oh, wait a second.

[35:39] Like, this pilot doesn't know that this pilot just declined this other one that's in the same area. And so I will call that pilot and say, hey, just a heads up.

[35:47] So and so just declined this, you know, this Sutter General going to Stanford. I know you're doing a Mercy San Juan call, but this patient just declined. Or this pilot just declined this one one.

[35:57] And they're like, oh, let me talk to that pilot. And so we catch those quite a bit sometimes where, you know, one pilot might see some, some weather that the other one didn't see or, you know, it's just, just feeling a little uncomfy about, you know, some of that weather that they're just like,

[36:10] you know, I'm just not feeling it. Or the med crew's worried about, you know, the turbulence in this patient being on a balloon pump and not wanting to rattle this patient too much inside an aircraft.

[36:19] So there's a lot of factors, and we try and relay as much information as possible to our pilots and med crews because more is better in this line of industry when it comes to safety and weather.

[36:32] Michelle: So many factors involved that you have to take into account.

[36:37] And the other thing is, Erin, you know, you don't work in a vacuum, right? You work with people.

[36:44] Pilots, flight crew,

[36:47] dispatchers,

[36:49] law enforcement, you know, medical personnel. And whenever people are involved,

[36:56] things can get really crazy, right? So let's talk about trust and communication. Those are two huge things when we're talking about dealing with people, right? You had told me in, in your bio that,

[37:13] that you guys have built a great rapport with your teams and your customers and that this field requires a lot of trust in all directions.

[37:23] So talk about trust, how it can be built, how it can be broken, and what is the result of broken trust.

[37:33] Erin: Yeah, no, those are great questions and it's absolutely true. Like, trust is so, so huge in this industry. And, you know, it isn't any, any medical field, right? Like, you, you have to trust one another.

[37:45] Communication is just the biggest thing, right? Open, open, open, open communication. I can't stress that enough because people, people want to be heard. They want their concerns to be heard.

[37:56] And, you know, it goes back to the safety issue. You know, we're talking about a base that, you know, a pilot saying, hey, this weather looks good. And a medical crew member is like, no, I don't like this I don't feel comfortable with it.

[38:08] And can you imagine, you know, if that pilot's like, I don't care, like it's, it's legal for me to fly, we're going to do this. You know, it's just that there would be no trust, there would be absolutely no trust from that medical crew to fly with that pilot ever again.

[38:22] So there, there just has to be that open communication. And you know, we,

[38:28] like you said, we're dealing with people, right? And people can be hard. You know, there's a lot of mixed emotions and I work night shifts, I work night shifts for almost nine years now.

[38:37] And you know, I'm waking crews up at 2am to send them on calls. My medical crews that are working 24, 36 hour shifts, I have some crews in Nevada that are working five, six days straight and then they're off after that.

[38:50] So there's a lot of emotions, there's a lot of sleep deprivation and things like that. And it's just giving that open and honest communication, giving my medical crew and my pilot as much information as possible, as much about the declines, as much about the patients not leaving anything out.

[39:07] And then when it comes to all my teams, you know, my team in the room, my team in the field, just like letting each other know that you always have their back, like just always being there for them when, when you're in our dispatch center and it can get super duper chaotic,

[39:19] right? It can get, the phones can be ringing like crazy, the radios can be going off and we can have so many calls going on at once. And you never want, at least in my personal belief, right?

[39:30] I never want a crew to feel like they're not a priority to us, especially when they are flying in a multi million dollar HA aircraft that you know, is responsible for their lives on board and the lives of the population around us, you know, if they're not being looked after,

[39:46] then who's looking after them if something happens to them? So it's important that they feel that they're in good hands and that we're keeping a good eye on them. So when it comes to the radios, you know, when there's an aircraft flying, we have, you know, our eyes staring at them directly at all times.

[40:02] Someone is always looking at those aircraft at all times. And if the phones are going off and I'm on a phone call, but I have radio traffic coming over, that phone call gets put on hold so I can answer the radio traffic.

[40:12] The radio traffic always is a first priority because whatever they need on that aircraft is far more important than anyone that I'm talking to that's, that's safe on the ground.

[40:22] It could be something simple. You know, it could be just them giving me an update. It could be them requesting me to set up fuel somewhere. But I've had pilots relay a brief report to me because the medical crew, so busy in the back, you know, with a patient that's coding and the pilot's like,

[40:35] hey, can you let this hospital know to get a team to the pad, this patient's coding or something like that, you know, or it could be some sort of emergency situation.

[40:43] You know, they've just had a bird strike, they've just had a laser strike or something and they need to, they need to land somewhere unintended. And we call those precautionary landings or sometimes an emergency landing when something goes wrong with the aircraft.

[40:55] So it's really important that the crew and the pilot feel that we are with them every step of the way. And that also falls on us in the room too.

[41:04] You know, if, if we're not like that with each other in the room, then it's just not going to flow. You know, it flows so well. And like you said, night shift in general, just a tight knit group,

[41:15] we have to have each other's back. And I said earlier, you know, we have different regions in the room to divvy out the workload and that way you can kind of stay in your region.

[41:24] But it's never like that. Once it gets busy, we all just jump in and help each other. And that's where you feel that trust. That's where you feel that, you know, like you have four different radios going off at the same time and you're trying to get them and you want to make sure you hear what every single one of them says.

[41:40] We have the ability to replay radio traffic too, but ultimately you want to hear it in the moment as quick as possible, right? And so if I have four radios going off at the same time, I have a lot of trust in my team in that room that someone's going to get one of my other radios for me.

[41:55] So I'm not trying to cop four people all at once. And we're just great communicators, right? As soon as I have four radios going off, I'll hear, you know, someone over here saying I got Reach 7 and someone over here saying, I have Reach 17.

[42:08] And they'll get up and get them while I get the other person or the other two people.

[42:11] So it's just huge. It's so important to just let people feel like. And understand that you have their back no matter what.

[42:21] And I love more than anything when our pilots and crew come and sit in the room with us and they just see what we're working with.

[42:28] How well we prioritize them and their needs because we know it's important. We know that, you know, it's a tough job and 

[42:37] It could be a scary job. You know, you're flying in a small aircraft through the clouds and through some. Some bumpy rides, and it's a risky job, and they want to get home to their families safely and they want their patients to get moved safely.

[42:50] That they're, you know, relying on their pilot to fly the helicopter. And that pilot's relying on us to keep an eye on them while they're flying that helicopter.

[42:58] So we're responsible for letting the aircraft know of other air traffic in the airspace, not like other companies, because we don't. I mean, we can use public softwares to see other aircraft flying everywhere from other companies, but at least our own aircraft, right?

[43:13] If I have two aircraft going to the same hospital, then I have to coordinate that. I have to make sure that someone's landing and getting out of the way for the next aircraft to come in.

[43:21] And so we coordinate all that. We tell the hospital we will take care of it. Don't worry. Will coordinate these two or three helicopters that are coming in, whether they be our company or another company.

[43:30] And we have to let our pilots know anytime there's one of our aircraft within 50 nautical miles of each other at any given point in their transport, just a second set of eyes.

[43:39] It's, you know, the aircraft have these softwares, they have their TCAs that'll let them know of other aircraft that are getting close to them, but that's usually once they're actually close to them.

[43:50] You know, it's, we want to be that person or that notification that's a little bit earlier, you know, that's telling them sooner before someone gets too close to them. So a lot of what we do is a backup, right?

[44:02] We clear helipads at hospitals. We call hospitals and say, hey, we have an aircraft inbound, is your helipad clears or anyone inbound or outbound, and they tell us yes or no.

[44:11] And then we work on clearing it if there's someone else on it. But our medical crew is also calling on the radio to that hospital as well, too, to make sure the helipad is clear.

[44:21] And it's just, it's a fail safe, right. If their radios go down, we're still always calling. And it happens quite a bit. Especially, you know, our crews. They'll be flying in really rural areas.

[44:30] The radios might not be working so well to do a ring down to the hospital, or the hospital's super busy with trauma calls they're getting. And so us calling and making sure that the helipad is clear is crucial.

[44:41] So once you start doing that, you know, a couple weeks in the, the medical crew is like, oh, Flight Guard's got our back. Or they're like, hey, can you set up fuel for me?

[44:48] And you're like, oh, I already did it. Or can you clear that pad for me? Already did it. You know, once they realize, like, oh, they know what they're doing in there.

[44:56] Or, you know, the team in my room, they realize they're never alone. And they learn that day one on the job, you know, they learn that, you know, I'm not the only one answering phones here.

[45:07] I'm not the only one answering my radios. Like, we're all jumping in to help each other at all times. So.

[45:13] Michelle: Yeah, I imagine, you know, you said that you love it when the pilots and other crew come in to your command center and just sit and see what you do. Because you know that, that old proverb or whatever, that a picture is worth a thousand words, it's like you could try to explain to somebody what you do,

[45:33] but until they actually see it in action,

[45:37] that is what is so powerful.

[45:39] Erin: Absolutely.

[45:40] Michelle: Yeah. That's amazing. I want to talk for a moment, Erin, about loss, because planes go down,

[45:49] helicopters go down, you lose people.

[45:53] And these are people, they're not just pilots and EMTs and flight nurses.

[45:59] These are people that have families and lives.

[46:06] So talk about loss and how you guys navigate that as a team. And also, how do you navigate that personally?

[46:17] Erin: Yeah, definitely. We have been very fortunate at my company. And there's going to be a lot of knocking on wood here that we haven't had any serious accidents in our company in the nine years that I've worked here.

[46:28] But there has been loss. There's been loss in other ways in our company. Losing personnel, you know, on duty, off duty,

[46:36] and our sister companies, you know, the company that owns us,

[46:40] they own other companies that are our sister companies that are in 42 states. And there's been aircraft that have gone down, our sister companies, and anytime an aircraft in the industry in general goes down, it's always this sinking feeling, right?

[46:52] It's always this, what if that was one of ours? And you, we were just talking about, you know, we love when the pilots and crews come to visit. Well, these, I, I talk to these pilots and crews more than I do most of my family.

[47:04] You know, it's other than my immediate family at home because I am talking to them every single night. I work seven 12 hour night shifts. I talk to them every single night for 12 hours.

[47:15] And we build this relationship with them, we build that trust with them. They are our family, you know, and I, it doesn't matter that I have 60 plus bases.

[47:23] It doesn't matter that they're in seven different states. They are 100% our family. And it would destroy me if, you know, something happened to any of them.

[47:32] But we've had some close calls and we've had, you know, one of our sister companies out of Reno, Careflight, they had had an accident a couple years ago and we used to dispatch that base years ago and so that was probably the closest one to us.

[47:47] And that one was hard. That was, I mean, that was just outside of Reno. I grew up in Reno. I have a lot of family in Reno. And you know, it hits a little harder.

[47:56] It becomes a little somber in the room. But at the same time, we're very much like we need to stay focused. We need to make sure that, you know, we're remaining vigilant so that doesn't happen to any of our crews.

[48:07] Right? Safety is so, so huge at my company. And I've had lots of pilots and crews that come in and sit with me that, you know, feel that we have the best safety standards out of any company they've ever worked for previously or they go to work for after.

[48:21] And no disrespect to the other companies, it's just safety is so huge in our company and our industry in general. You know, there's a lot of federal regulations that, that require our standards to be stricter than other types of aviation industries.

[48:36] Just because we have, you know, we have critical patients on board, we have vulnerable population on board. And it's just, it's a really, really strict, as far as safety goes.

[48:46] I was just thinking about this before we started doing this podcast, and I was curious if you were going to think my job was talking a lot to the public.

[48:53] Right. Like a 911 dispatcher might do, because that's definitely a misconception that people have as far as they think. I'm a, you know, I'm a dispatcher. I'm talking to people that are calling in, you know, like, oh, you know, I was just in an accident.

[49:06] And thankfully, I do not get a lot of those calls. I don't know if I could handle it, to be honest. I, you know, I was a medic in the Air Force before, and you learn how to compartmentalize.

[49:16] You're a nurse like you learn how to do it right. But it doesn't mean it's not hard. It doesn't mean that sometimes it doesn't hit you. At the end of the day, I'm very fortunate that I don't see these patients that I deal with, and I don't talk to a lot of their family.

[49:29] The medical crew and the pilots are the real MVPs for having to see that regularly. But every once in a while, I get a family member that calls in that's crying, wondering where their child is or something.

[49:41] And that cuts you a little deep because you see that, you hear that family member in hysterics, and it's hard, and you have to power through it. And I'm a weeper, man.

[49:52] I cry at anything. I cry at any commercial on tv. Happy, sad, whatever it may be. And I haven't cried on the job yet, so I think I'm doing okay.

[50:01] Michelle: Oh, my God.

[50:02] Erin: But I just can't imagine being, you know, 911 and getting those types of calls and. But we've had some. We've lost some people in the company. And, you know, it's.

[50:12] You know, we've had a Kumbaya in the room. We've all come together and gone through some things. We lost a member in Flight Guard one time, and that was really hard for all of us as well, too.

[50:22] But, you know, we just kind of rally together. It is a family. You know, you lose a family member, and who do you lean on? The rest of your family?

[50:30] And so we just stick together in these moments. And you never see the family get closer until one of those moments happens. So hopefully there's not many more of those in my career here, but it's going to happen.

[50:44] Unfortunately, it's inevitable that we lose people, but we just learned to kind of just stick together and get through it together. So.

[50:52] Michelle: Yeah, I remember. Well, Jenny talked about,

[50:57] you know, losing. I know whenever she loses somebody in the flight crew and not just in her company, but anywhere like she'll hear about it and it really affects her deeply.

[51:12] She's, you know, like many of you guys, just spends so much time with her work family, you know, a lot of times much more than her actual family and they become very, very close.

[51:28] So that can be really tough. And you talked about safety and I remember when Jenn told me when they're flying how they don't know when they get the call, they don't know like who the patient is.

[51:43] And you had mentioned that because if they know that it's like a five year old motor vehicle accident or something, that these crews, even though if the weather is really shitty, they're going to emotionally feel like,

[52:01] I don't want to let a five year old die, let's go. And they could make bad decisions like that.

[52:08] Erin: Yep. I think actually the pilots a lot get affected by that because,

[52:13] well, it's hard to completely avoid them not knowing how, how big or small the patient is. Right. If I tone a base out for an inner facility and it's five kilos, then you, you know it's going to be OE1.

[52:24] Right. But typically on a scene call. Right, that was a great example. So on a scene call, they don't get any information until they accept the flight. On any flight, they don't get any information until they accept the flight.

[52:35] But we don't get patient weights. They never get the patient name from us, period. On any type of call, we, we build it in our CAD for, for tracking purpose, for reporting purposes.

[52:44] But the medical crew doesn't get any of that. You know, it, it could be we've had instances where it's a loved one, you know, we've had instances where,

[52:53] you know, it's a crew member or it's a pilot, you know, that's off duty or on duty that they're, they're going to go transport. There's been, you know, high profile people that we've flown and they don't know, they don't know until they get there.

[53:05] Which also feels kind of sucky in a little bit of a way. You know, it's just like, wow, you could have given me a heads up that I was going to be flying this, this VIP or something.

[53:14] But at the same time, it's like it doesn't matter, right? It does not matter who you're flying. Patient care is exactly the same. We do one of the things that, that I love that we do at this company, and this is a little off topic, but we do neonatal transports at our company.

[53:28] And a lot of companies don't have the capability. They don't have the teams. And that my favorite. That's my absolute favorite. No offense to anyone that's not a neonate in this world that's listening to this, but I can't imagine a lot of neonates are listening to me talk right now.

[53:42] But I love those calls. You know, those crews that we have are extremely dedicated. Those specialized crews that do the neonatal transports, they're very, very passionate about their job.

[53:55] They're very good at their job. They just, they really care. It doesn't matter what time of night it is. It doesn't matter how long they've been on shift. It doesn't matter if they're off duty or on duty.

[54:03] They come in and they're off duty hours to, to fly these, the most critical,

[54:08] the most vulnerable population, you know, that needs transport. These tiny, tiny little babies that are sometimes less than a kilo in weight, you know, they just, they need that care.

[54:17] And I love those calls. I do. Because it just, it feels great. Like, it feels like you're really, really helping these guys. Because,

[54:25] you know, I do 100% feel like we make such a huge difference in Flight Guard, right? It's easy to think, you know, the glass half empty kind of

[54:34] thought. It's easy to think we're the low on the totem pole, right, in the industry. But it's just, we're such a vital part of this company and getting the crews to where they need to get to and getting these patients moved safely.

[54:46] But when it comes to adult patients or, you know, even pediatric patients that have minor, minor injuries and stuff like that, you know, an ambulance can move that patient, or the hospital might be able to send someone.

[54:57] When it comes to a neonatal, it's us and only us. Or, you know, a specialized hospital has to send a team up to go get a patient somewhere. And so those just kind of just make you feel even just that little, little bit better.

[55:10] You know, that cherry on top of the Sunday when you get those moved. And they're very logistically challenging. They're long calls. Those crews are bedside for, for hours, sometimes with those babies.

[55:20] Sometimes the baby isn't even born yet in. Our crews go bedside to help deliver the baby, and then they'll transport the patient after they've stabilized them. And so they're very long.

[55:30] I've seen those calls. You know, I, I work all night on one of those calls, and I come back the next night and it's still going on sometimes. Like, I've seen some crazy long ones and those crews still have a smile on their face.

[55:42] They're still, you know, they've held over for hours. They came in and they're off time. And it's just, I've developed such a good rapport with those, those crew members still, specifically because we just talk so much on those transports and get those babies moved.

[55:57] Whether it's, you know, putting that crew in that isolette in this rotor or having this rotor come pick up this crew member from this base and just piecing these teams together, putting them on a fixed wing if we have to do long distance and getting those babies moved so.

[56:11] Michelle: Well, you're speaking my love language, Erin. You know, I come from the neonatal population. Yeah. Oh, my gosh. And we got to see that. You know, we didn't do transport at our hospital, but we called, we had a tertiary center about 50 minutes away by ground.

[56:29] But air, I think they were like 15 minutes, 20 minutes, something like that. And you're absolutely right. You know, to us,

[56:37] those flight, you know, nurses, paramedics, pilots, you know, they would walk in. It was almost like theatrical, like movies, you know, like they're in their flight suits and they got all their, their belts on with all their gear hanging off.

[56:53] And, you know, it's like you could hear this music in the background and it's just like. Yeah. And we were always so happy to see them because we had these critical babies and we were happy to see them go somewhere where they could get a higher level of care.

[57:11] But. Yeah, love it. Wow. Well, it's funny and, you know, I have. Sorry, go ahead.

[57:15] Erin: It's funny you mentioned the, the wow factor, right. Of seeing the crew come in. And I've, I've done a couple ride alongs and I remember the very first ride along I did was on a fixed swing and it was a, it was actually like a lower level of care transport.

[57:28] So we were transporting a patient from Southern California to Phoenix, which was a great first flight for me because that was a long flight, but it was, you know, a gentleman that had Guillain-Barre, that was getting flown to,

[57:40] you know, a rehab facility, a nursing facility closer to home. And so not a ton of exposure on that call. But then when I did my first ROTOR ride along, I went out to Gilroy and ran out there, and I remember Jenn used to fly out at that base,

[57:54] but I went out there, and the wow factor that I see, you know, the eye, like, everyone's eyes in the hospital when the crew walks in, it's fascinating

[58:03] When they arrived to pick up a patient,

[58:05] everywhere we went, we ran three calls that day. And everyone. Everyone on the scene calls, everyone at the sending hospital or the receiving hospital, the sending hospital is just super thankful, right?

[58:14] They're like, oh, my gosh, someone is here that can give this care to this patient that they need that we can't do here. Like, thank you so much for getting this patient off our hands, but also getting this patient the care they need.

[58:25] But, you know, when we transported a pediatric patient from a scene call to, you know, a peds trauma facility, and it's, you know, a teaching hospital, so there's like, this giant swarm of people coming in, and I'm like, whoa.

[58:37] And I'm just this, you know, this baby flight coordinator, and I'm in my little. You know, my little fake flight suit, and I'm standing with the pilot. I'm trying to stand out of the way, and our.

[58:46] Our two nurses, you know, wheel the patient into the trauma room, and there's. There's like 10 people in there just swarming this patient. And I was like, holy cow. This is chaos.

[58:55] And one of my nurses just yelled out, and she's like, listen up. And she just yells it out, and everyone just shuts up and lets her talk, and she just takes control of that room.

[59:04] And they move the patient over, and she's giving this full, detailed report, and everyone's just listening in. I'm like, this was amazing. Like, this was incredible. The respect that they get.

[59:14] And they just own that room. And, you know, I remember them telling me they were like, well, they really trust us. You know, we're this flying ICU. Like, we have to do what an ICU does in a tiny little helicopter, you know, flying over here.

[59:30] And so the trust I saw between the crew and the pilot. The crew was asking the pilot to turn on oxygen for them. The crew was asking the pilot to fly at a lower altitude for them.

[59:42] And just, like, that communication was just incredible. And, yeah,

[59:47] I totally get the wow factor. I saw it just like how I said it's important for the crew and pilots to sit with us. It's important for us to do ride alongs.

[59:53] I always get all my people in Flight Guard's scheduled to do ride alongs at the bases because it's so important and it's cool. Once you've worked at. We always send people out on ride alongs when they first start.

[01:00:04] But it's also cool to go back out there when you've been working here a while because then you start to know, you know, what this equipment is, you know, what these types of calls are and these hospitals are.

[01:00:13] And you, you meet people in the hospitals that you're talking to on the phone every day. So. Yeah, but there's definite. Wow.

[01:00:19] Michelle: Yeah, I always, oh my gosh, I, I always imagined like the theme to Rocky like in the background, you know, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam. You know, as they're walking in, it's.

[01:00:30] And the other thing, Erin, is the humility of these people always just blew me away.

[01:00:37] You know, we're basically like down on our knees, you know. You know, thank you, thank you. And they're just like, oh, you know, it's our pleasure. You know, they're just so humble and it's just like another day of work to them.

[01:00:52] But I don't know if they fully realize their impact that they're making on, on all of us. But yeah, it's an amazing thing to see.

[01:01:01] Erin: I think they do. I have to tell a lot of them, a lot of them work in hospitals too. I can't think of too many nurses that I know that are, that work for our company that don't still also work in a hospital.

[01:01:12] And the medic, same thing. They're almost all still working on an ambulance too. They do this part of the job because they love it, you know, because, yeah, they like doing this, this type of job.

[01:01:23] You know, it's a dream for most people to be able to fly. It might not be like a long term career for some people. It's very wearing on the body, I'm sure.

[01:01:31] But it's something that they've all strived to do at some point in their lives. And so I, I think they all get it, which is humbling, right, because they, they've worked in hospitals themselves.

[01:01:39] They get it. You know, they, they know what it's like. They know what it's like to work in. Most of them might know what it's like to work in Some small rural hospital or some big tertiary hospital as well, so.

[01:01:50] Michelle: Exactly. And the dedication, it's just. It's beyond amazing. I have to tell a quick little story of my dispatch days.

[01:02:00] So like you had said, when I thought I was going to talk to you, I thought, you know, she's a dispatcher. She's a 911 dispatcher. She takes those calls and all that.

[01:02:10] Well, my 17th year, I was a ride along with our local ambulance company. I thought I wanted to get into emergency medicine somehow, so they had this program where you could ride along, and I did that.

[01:02:26] And then over the summer, there was a job there, and it was a dispatch. And so they said, oh, you want to be one of our dispatchers? And I was like, yeah, that sounds great.

[01:02:37] You know, 17 years old,

[01:02:39] no training,

[01:02:40] basically you just answer this phone. This was pre-911 days.

[01:02:45] So we're talking like early 80s, right?

[01:02:50] And so I worked this whole summer, and I just thought it was really fun. I loved it. I got a few of those calls, those really emergency calls, but a lot of them were just, you know, just basic calls.

[01:03:05] And at the end of the summer, you know, they were like, well, we're gonna let you go. And I was like, what? Like, why?

[01:03:14] And I think about, like, if this happened today.

[01:03:19] So this is what my supervisor told me.

[01:03:22] Your voice is too sexy.

[01:03:26] Erin: Oh, my God.

[01:03:28] Michelle: Yeah. And it's interfering with some of the abilities of our EMTs to focus on their job.

[01:03:37] Erin: What?

[01:03:38] Michelle: Yeah. And, you know, me being 17, I was just like, okay, whatever. But I think about that and I go, wow.

[01:03:49] Erin: Certainly no HR department back then, either.

[01:03:51] Michelle: Shoot, no HR. Yeah. And like I said, pre-91 1, so when you called for an ambulance, you had to dial a seven digit number.

[01:04:01] Erin: Wow.

[01:04:02] Michelle: So, yeah, imagine being under duress and having to make a call like that.

[01:04:06] Erin: That is nuts. Crazy. I can't believe someone would say that to you, let alone fire you for that too. Geez.

[01:04:14] Michelle: Like I said a long time ago.

[01:04:17] All right, well, listen, we're getting ready to close here. This has been so much fun. What advice do you have for those folks that are wishing to enter into dispatch in any way, shape or form?

[01:04:31] Erin: Just have compassion, you know, have empathy. I have a ton of those things. Maybe too much at times, right? There's a fine line, but it's definitely a career where you have to have that

[01:04:44] compassion. You know, I might not talk to the patients, I might not see the patients, but I feel for them. I feel for them on every single call and you know, just, just being human like that, just having that compassion will help drive you, you know, will help drive you to make good decisions,

[01:05:01] will help drive you to do what's best for the patient at any given time. You know, it. I don't ever become complacent because I always have that compassion for these patients and for my crews too.

[01:05:12] You know, I know what they're going through and I don't ever, I don't ever, you know, doubt them or their clinical abilities. And I just put a lot of faith into my crews and my pilots just like they do in me.

[01:05:25] So just, just open communication, compassion, you know, putting a lot of trust in teamwork, you know, having trust in your team and your partners and just. Yeah, it's a great job.

[01:05:38] I really do love it. I I never thought I would do something like this. I just never thought of it. It's not that I was like, oh, I don't want to do that.

[01:05:44] It's just I was a medic in the air force, so I always thought I would do something hands on. And I never worked on an ambulance. I was always in a clinic or I was an ER tech.

[01:05:52] And I didn't really do a lot. I never did in a patient or ambulance work or anything like that. But I grew up in aviation. I grew up in the medical field.

[01:06:01] And this is just a perfect combination of those two things. So anyone that has an interest in aviation or medicine, like, this is an incredible career path and you meet a lot of cool people, you learn a lot of cool things, and let's just face it, like, helicopters and planes are pretty freaking cool.

[01:06:18] Like, they're, they're amazing. I'm still starstruck every time I see one. I just went and saw one last weekend. Like, I just, it's, it's a great job.

[01:06:25] Michelle: Geek out on all that stuff.

[01:06:27] That's great advice. Speaking of follow up, like, do you get to know any follow up on any of the patients that you guys transport?

[01:06:36] Erin: No. And every once in a while I'll pick the brains. You know, we're pretty close to a lot of the transfer centers, especially some of the tertiary hospitals that we talk to quite a bit.

[01:06:44] And I'll ask, like, I never ask questions. I never asked, you know, what's going on with this patient or what happened. It's not my business. But I had a patient a couple weeks ago that I was just like really concerned about and I was like, hey, whatever happened to that kiddo?

[01:06:56] And then the charge nurse that, you know this hospital was like, oh, he went home, he was okay. And I was like, oh, thank you. Like thank you so much.

[01:07:03] And I just needed to know it was bothering me and just eating out my stomach. But for the most part we don't ever find out. I, I don't think our crews or our pilots really ever get a lot of follow up either.

[01:07:14] To touch on that real quick, I, right when I started working at this company, my father in law was flown by us and years later, you know, I didn't really know anyone at the company at the time and so I didn't feel that like personal connection to like go and talk to that crew or anything.

[01:07:30] But years later I just randomly brought it up to the pilot that flew him and I was like, hey, you flew my father in law a couple years ago, you know, from this hospital to this hospital.

[01:07:38] He had had a stroke and he was like, I remember that call and I remember meeting you. And so we talked about it. He's like, how is he doing? He's like, we never find out.

[01:07:46] Like I never know. He's like, especially as a pilot, he's like, I never find out what happens to these patients. And he was so happy just getting that little tidbit that he made a full recovery and that he's doing great now and it just made the pilot's day.

[01:07:59] So I hope, I wish there was more of that. I wish, you know, we could all find out what happens to all these. Well, maybe I don't want to know what happens to all of them, but I wish I knew the good news, you know, on all the, all the good patients,

[01:08:10] so.

[01:08:11] Michelle: Exactly. Yeah. Jenn has said that, you know, they don't get follow up and she's had a few patients that she got really close to in terms of like really wanting to know what happened.

[01:08:25] And she has some nurse friends in other hospitals and you know, she would shoot them a line and say, you know, do you know what happened to this person? And, and get an update.

[01:08:35] But it was very few and far between. And I think probably some people, you know, like you like that and then maybe not sometimes too.

[01:08:46] Erin: Some people really compartmentalize, you know, go in there and they focus on treating this patient, transporting this patient and then on to the next one and you kind of have to have.

[01:08:56] Right. Like if you're, if you're fixating on this patient, I just transported, then you're not giving that, that next patient the, you know, the time and the care that they need.

[01:09:06] So you have to find that balance, I think. And same with us in dispatch. You know, every once in a while I see a patient that I'm like, oh, my God, like, how did this happen?

[01:09:14] Like, you know, how did this pediatric patient suffer this kind of trauma, this kind of, this type time of night, you know, like, what is going on? And like, it cuts you deep a little because you're just like, have all these questions and it's just like, well, I can't sit here and question this call or,

[01:09:29] you know, wait to. Sometimes the med crew will fill us in and stuff, but I can't sit there and wait on that. You know, you have to move on to the other patients.

[01:09:36] So there's just that fine line you have to find. But I can't imagine being in Jenn's shoes. I can't imagine being in the medical crew's shoes because sometimes, sometimes the crew has to take a timeout.

[01:09:45] Sometimes a call is just too hard. Sometimes they go home and just. You're like, you know, that call was rough. And, you know, when we talked about the accidents in the industry earlier, and sometimes we've taken those calls, you know, we've had, you know, those dispatch centers tell us,

[01:10:00] you know, we're stood down, we're on a safety stand down. We just had an accident. And those calls hurt. You know, we're talking to those dispatch centers, they're dispatching those aircraft and those, those are hard.

[01:10:10] And you have to compartmentalize and just keep doing your job to, you know, there's other patients and other, other bases. So.

[01:10:18] Michelle: Yeah, well, it's gotta be very tough. And you know, Erin, I forgot to ask you about your schedule. It's pretty crazy. But how do you make it work? What do you, how do you adapt?

[01:10:29] Erin: Yeah, it's. It's interesting. So my schedule, I work a seven on, seven off. Only me and the other night shift supervisor do that. Everyone else in our communication center does, like a front end, back end.

[01:10:39] So they work 3 off, 4 work 4 off 3. We used to be on that schedule. And then me and my partner were like, hey, why don't we do this?

[01:10:47] Like, the pilots do it. The pilots do a seven on, seven off.

[01:10:51] It's. It was brutal the first couple, couple months of doing it, you know, by her and I were always picking up so much overtime and covering other shifts that it's like once, once you're working five days in a row, five 12 hour night shifts, you're like, I've already been here 60 hours.

[01:11:05] Like what's, what's two more days? And to be honest, I feel like I get into a better groove. Like it could be easy for some people to become complacent during those days or just get exhausted or burnout and.

[01:11:18] Not me, I just, I really get into this groove where I just, I feel like I'm my best when I'm working that many days in a row because I just, you know, little oddities of the job that I start to, I don't know, ace or there's changes every day in this industry and at our company and new bases opening and new radio repeaters and all these things.

[01:11:38] And so I become like a subject matter expert. When I'm working on something for a week straight, it's a little hard. When I have my week off and I come back, it's a little hard adjusting.

[01:11:45] Like getting back into the swing. It's just like you had spring break in school, you know, and you're trying to get back into work. But I, I try and leave work at work when I come home.

[01:11:55] But you know, being a supervisor, I still have meetings and stuff that I tend to, so I still kind of always have work on the mine. It's never completely forgotten.

[01:12:03] And so unlike Jenn, who's on call 24/7 as a director. So thankfully I'm not getting called 24 7. I've called Jenn very, I've called her many, many times in the middle of the night needing something.

[01:12:17] But it's a stretch. But, I'll tell you, it's really nice for that home-work, balance, you know, it seems like it can be rough because you're like seven days.

[01:12:28] And for my home life, it was a struggle a little bit. Like as far as just like adjusting to it, it's just like, oh, you're gone for seven straight days.

[01:12:34] You know, you work at night for 12 hours, 12 plus. We work 12 hours and 15 minutes every shift. And so, you know, with drive time and all that, I'm away from my house over 13 hours and then I come home and I'm exhausted and I take care of my dogs and I go right to sleep.

[01:12:51] And then I, I don't really do anything on my work days other than, you know, meal prep and maybe go to the gym or something. But I don't do a lot.

[01:12:59] I save a lot of those things for the days that I'm off. And the seven days I'm off, there's a rest day in there. There's a, you know, prep for my work weekday in there, and then there's a time for me.

[01:13:09] But it's really nice around, you know, vacations and just taking care of me, my fam, a lot. Most of my family's out of state, so visiting my family, 

[01:13:18] It's nice to have those days off. But it's just when you're working those. The four and three. Three days off feels like nothing. When you work night shift because you're exhausted and you usually are sleeping the day away or you're trying to power through and not sleep, and then you're just miserable because you didn't sleep.

[01:13:36] And so it just didn't feel like enough time. So I've been on this seven on, seven off for a couple years now, and I would never go back

[01:13:44] Unless they made me, but I would never go back. It's really nice. It's really nice to just. And not to mention, I get to work with different people. So, you know, the first couple days of my work week, I'm working with these people, and then the last couple days I'm working with these people.

[01:13:57] And so I get to work with everyone. I get to, you know, I'm not working with the same people for seven straight days. It's just a good, good mix of things, you know, and getting to know people and work with different people and.

[01:14:09] Yeah. Just a bigger team.

[01:14:12] Michelle: Yeah. When you first told me that, I was like, oh, my God, that's gotta be hell. But then I started thinking about it and I was like, ah, you know, what if you.

[01:14:19] If you did get in a groove and, you know, you have to have understanding family and friends and. And who know the demands of the job and that you're gonna be gone, you know, for a week and you might need like a little recovery day after the week ends and all that,

[01:14:37] It could totally work. And I have talked to nurses from other hospitals that have that same schedule, and they say, yeah, you know, once you get into the groove and everybody understands what they're in for, it actually is really nice.

[01:14:53] So thanks for talking about that.

[01:14:55] Erin: Yeah, that's what I mean, the pilots do a seven on when they pick up overtime. They're working, you know, covering someone's shift, they're working 10, 11 days. Same thing with us.

[01:15:04] That's where it gets hard, right? If I'm covering for someone else, then I'm there 10 days, you know, up, I don't know, eight, nine, 10 days. But the med crew, on the other hand, like, no one has an easy schedule at our company, that's for sure.

[01:15:16] There's not a single person. I mean, even the administrators that work, there's some, you know, administrative personnel that work on Monday through Friday, 9 to 5, but they're still kind of available in their off hours for XYZ reasons.

[01:15:28] Because in this industry, we're never closed, right? It's always 24/7. There's something that can always happen or need assistance. And that's why, you know, your sister Jenn, being a program director, like,

[01:15:39] She'll get a call in the middle of the night, she'll have to answer to a conference call, a video call, whatever it may be in the middle of the night, because we're never closed.

[01:15:47] We're just, we're always open. So, you know, our. Yeah, especially for dispatch, like, not to toot our horn or anything, but, you know, when the medical crew have had a long day, when the pilot have a long day, they, they can take a fatigue break.

[01:15:58] They can go out of service, but we never go out of service in dispatch. So we are always there 24/7. So we just, we find them, make it work.

[01:16:06] And yeah, it works for us. We do a good job.

[01:16:10] Michelle: Yeah, it's just an occupational hazard for sure. Well, Erin, this has been so informational. I have learned so much and I'm just in awe of you and what you do and like, Jenn recommended you as a guest on this podcast.

[01:16:28] Is there someone that you would recommend?

[01:16:30] Erin: Yeah, I could get you in touch with some nurses. How about, have you talked to any Neo flight nurses? I could probably get you one of those. I know you love the, the babies.

[01:16:39] Michelle: I do. I haven't talked to actually a Neo flight nurse. I've talked to several neonatal nurses, but that would be awesome. Love it. Sweet.

[01:16:48] Erin: Yeah, I have a couple people in mind are a neomedic because we have medics and nurses, so.

[01:16:52] Michelle: Okay. Sweet. Well, where can we find you if somebody wants to get in touch with you if they have questions?

[01:16:58] Erin: Um, I have my Instagram that's just. It's @ErinBobaron11. I know. Super, super original. And then, you know, I could give my email. I don't know if I put that in the bio.

[01:17:09] Actually, I could put that in there. Okay. But it's Erin Johansson24@gmail.com and then I have a Facebook as well too. You'll know you have the right one because you'll see, you know, if you look at some of my pictures, you'll see some aircraft and corgis.

[01:17:22] So that's me.

[01:17:24] You know, we're always hiring too. We're always looking to add people at our company too. So if anyone ever has an interest, like they can reach out to me and we can discuss the demands of the job.

[01:17:32] Obviously this, you know, we talked about it, but there's always more to it and more that can be said. And I can help guide people to see something they're interested in as well, or if they just have questions or just want to come sit along or do a ride along or whatever it may be.

[01:17:46] Michelle: Sounds great. Thank you so much. Wow.

[01:17:50] Okay, Erin. Well, we're at the end, so we're ready for the five minute snippet. This is just five minutes of fun to see the off duty side of Erin Johansen when she's not running a room full of dispatchers and solving all of life's problems.

[01:18:08] So are you ready?

[01:18:13] Be ready to play. Sure.

[01:18:14] Erin: Let's give it a go.

[01:18:55] Okay.

[01:18:57] Convince me to live in your hometown.

[01:19:00] Erin: In my hometown, where I currently live,

[01:19:03] Sacramento is restaurants. Sacramento is known for their restaurants. We have every type of food here. Every every type of ethnic food. I am a big sports gal so I love the sports that we have here.

[01:19:17] We just moved the Oakland A's here temporarily. So that just started up the. We have the beautiful river. We have. I don't know. That downtown scene is just really nice.

[01:19:28] Even though I'm not much of a downtown person, I'm not doing a good job of convincing.

[01:19:34] Michelle: Hey, you had me at food.

[01:19:35] Erin: Yeah, I was gonna say that's that's where I sell people, because that's all I care about is the food. We're super close to Tahoe. Like, I can see the pine trees and the snowy mountains from here.

[01:19:43] So it's just a hop, skip, and a jump to Lake Tahoe, and a hop, skip, and a jump to San Francisco Bay Area.

[01:19:49] Michelle: So, so close to all that. It sounds amazing. Okay, I know you're a Seahawks fan, so I'm gonna ask you this Seahawks trivia.

[01:19:57] Erin: Okay. I'm more baseball. I'm more of a Mariners fan, but I'll try.

[01:20:02] Michelle: Okay. How did the Seahawks secondary get its Legion of Boom nickname?

[01:20:09] Erin: Oh, man, I can name the guys in the Legion of Boom. I just don't know. I wonder if it has something to do with the earthquakes.

[01:20:18] So Seattle has the loudest fan base. Is it?

[01:20:21] Michelle: Yes.

[01:20:22] Erin: So at that time when we had Legion of Boom, Seattle had the loudest fan base. In fact, the fans were so loud that they generated an earthquake when one of our running backs, Marshawn Lynch, scored a touchdown.

[01:20:33] But the Legion of Boom were just electric. And that was, you know, Richard Sherman, Cam Chancellor, all these guys, Bobby Wagner, that were just explosive.

[01:20:43] And I'm assuming it has something to do with the sound, but I really don't know the answer.

[01:20:47] Michelle: Well, I think that could be part of it. So you mentioned the safety Cam Chancellor, and they said that he was doing an interview on the Bob and Graz show on ESPN Seattle, and he told the hosts how he wanted to bring the boom.

[01:21:01] And then a caller texted the name as part of a poll, and so they took this poll,

[01:21:07] and Richard Sherman was actually the person that approved it. The name Legion of Boom.

[01:21:14] Erin: That's awesome. I had no idea.

[01:21:16] Michelle: I know. I thought that was so cool. Okay, tell me a story about the fish that got away.

[01:21:24] Erin: The fish that got away. Is this like.

[01:21:27] Michelle: I heard you like the fish.

[01:21:28] Erin: Oh, we. We like fishing a lot. We go fishing quite a bit. Is this like, a literal fish?

[01:21:34] Michelle: Yeah, literal fish. Like, you had this fish on the line, and it was this big, and.

[01:21:40] Erin: That's happened numerous times.

[01:21:44] Michelle: Which one?

[01:21:44] Erin: You know, I'll tell one story that we go fishing quite a bit. That's something we're really into. And, you know, we go out in the ocean or the Sacramento Delta is pretty big for us, but we went on the river this one time, and 

[01:21:57] We were going salmon fishing, and I don't know what it is. I can't seem to catch a salmon to save my life. And we we go up on the Rogue river in Oregon, and I've caught salmon there, but anywhere else, it's just we can't seem to keep them on.

[01:22:09] We'll take other people with us, and they all catch salmon, and we just don't ever get it.

[01:22:12] Michelle: Hmm.

[01:22:13] Erin: But I mean, I've just. I had this monster salmon and I lost it completely. Probably the biggest salmon I've ever seen in my life and lost that completely. And then 

[01:22:23] I hooked a sturgeon, which you can't. Sturgeon are very, very.

[01:22:27] There's very strict rules with sturgeon. Like, you can't bring it up out of the water if it's, has to be between a certain size, so it can't be too big, it can't be too small.

[01:22:35] And so you can't even bring it up out of the water if it's too big or too small. And so I hooked this sturgeon and I was just like, letting it pull me everywhere.

[01:22:42] And we had a guide with us, thankfully, because I wouldn't have known. I don't know anything about surgeon. And he's like, we're gonna have to cut that one loose, but I'll let you play with it for a while.

[01:22:49] And I'm like, how big you think it is? And he's like, I'll let you see for yourself. You know, reeling it in and reeling it in, and it gets closer.

[01:22:55] And this thing was as wide as a telephone pole. Like, it had to have been several. Several hundreds of pounds. And it's just like this. They're creepy looking. They're prehistoric.

[01:23:04] They're, you know,

[01:23:06] little dinos. I mean, they're dinosaurs. They're just these weird little. Not little.

[01:23:10] Michelle: They are. They are weird.

[01:23:12] Erin: I had to let it go because I'm like, I can't keep that. Even though that would have been an amazing picture that I would not have been able to hold. 

[01:23:18] I'm not super strong. I probably wouldn't barely been hold the mouth, but that's cool.

[01:23:22] Michelle: Okay. Love it. Okay, give us your acceptance speech for being selected flight coordinator of the year for 2023.

[01:23:31] Erin: Oh, shoot. An acceptance speech.

[01:23:34] I've probably already said a lot of these things during the day. I'm truly grateful for everyone that nominated me. It's an amazing industry that we work in, and I really, truly love my job.

[01:23:46] I can't imagine liking a job more than I do. Even when it gets really, really stressful and you're just like, man, this is a hard night.

[01:23:55] I want to keep coming back for more and more, and I just am so grateful that my team out in the field, you know, this was an award that I won.

[01:24:03] That was, I was nominated by people out in the field, the nurses, the pilots, and even my leadership as well. And I appreciate and I love that they see the work and dedication that I put into this job and that they appreciate me for it, just like I appreciate them for it.

[01:24:18] Michelle: That's amazing. Yeah. Wow. Congratulations on that.

[01:24:21] Erin: Thank you.

[01:24:22] Michelle: Okay, our last part is I started this new thing. It's called five words, five seconds each.

[01:24:29] So define or describe the word. And you got five seconds. And guess what? No one's counting.

[01:24:38] Erin: Good. Because I'm pretty long winded. If you haven't heard.

[01:24:41] Michelle: Okay, ready? First word. Coconut.

[01:24:45] Erin: Describe coconut. See, I'm already lost. I'm already at five seconds. Coconut's my favorite food. Like, it's my favorite fruit. That's my. Okay, amazing.

[01:24:55] Michelle: Oriole.

[01:24:55] Erin: Like an Oreo Oriole. Oh, Oriole. Like the bird. I think a baseball team. I'm like, trying to think.

[01:25:03] I'm like, I don't know. I just think of the Baltimore Orioles, the orange. The orange and black baseball team. Calvary Penn Jr.

[01:25:10] Michelle: Noise.

[01:25:11] Erin: I immediately thought of my job and how noisy it can get in there. Yeah, we have noise canceling stuff, but it gets noisy and we have to keep. Keep the background noise low.

[01:25:22] For sure.

[01:25:23] Michelle: Ember.

[01:25:24] Erin: Oh, I just think of embers when you're sitting at a fire pit, when you're camping and the embers are flying around.

[01:25:32] Michelle: Love that. And last word, beer.

[01:25:35] Erin: Oh, I love a cold IPA. And if Jenn put you up to any of these words, that's exactly why. Because that is our thing, that we like to get a beer together.

[01:25:44] But yes, I do.

[01:25:45] Michelle: It's so funny because I had already thought of those words. And then she told me that you love beer, especially IPA. I was like, oh, perfect.

[01:25:54] I had already put beer in there.

[01:25:56] Erin: I love more than anything in this world, like, not more than anything. It's going to make me sound like an alcoholic. But I love baseball. That's just, like, my passion.

[01:26:04] And I love, like, a warm, sunny day, sitting at a baseball game and having a beer. It's just the atmosphere, the sounds, the smells. I just love that. There's just something about having a cold beer in your hand or having a.

[01:26:14] A social beer with a friend. Like Jenn.

[01:26:17] Michelle: Love it. Love it. Idyllic. Erin, gosh, thank you so much. You've brought so much fun and information and spark, and I could see just how much you love what you do.

[01:26:33] And, gosh, we're so thankful to have you in that position.

[01:26:37] Erin: Thank you. And thank you for everything you've done. You've been saving the babies and the mamas of the world, so it's super fun.

[01:26:43] Michelle: Yeah. Love it. Well, have a great rest of your day, Erin.

[01:26:47] Erin: Thank you so much. You have a good one.

[01:26:49] Michelle: Take care.