Flight nurse is LR student and professor

Commitment, versatility and compassion are key traits for all health care professionals who right now are serving on the front lines treating patients during the COVID-19 worldwide pandemic.

"We're having to find ways to work around difficult situations and all the unknowns such as the overall treatment of these patients and the concern for health care providers themselves," said Wake Forest Baptist Health nurse practitioner Wendy Rash. "The newness of the virus has brought about concerns because we don't know anything about it. That alone makes things challenging, not to mention the availability of personal protective equipment and the manpower to take care of these people."

Professional health care has many faces, and in Rash's case, she wears many hats.

Flight nurse, radiology specialist, student and teacher, Rash fills all these roles as a health care provider with Wake Forest Baptist Health and as a graduate student and lecturer at Lenoir-Rhyne University.

"She is an amazing role model and example to new students on just how much one can accomplish as a nurse practitioner in interventional radiology, as a flight nurse and as an educator," said Dr. Diane Caruso, director of the Doctor of Nursing Practice and Family Nurse Practitioner program at LR. "Wendy assists with teaching topics that very few of us can teach, so she truly is a commodity."

Rash began her career in the sky as a flight nurse riding helicopters to far-off locations, rendering emergency care in remote locations and ushering patients to trauma care facilities. She spent 23 years in that role before returning to school to become a nurse practitioner gaining a new specialty.

"Working on the helicopter was very challenging for a number of reasons: environmental, patient acuity reasons," she said. "Those were wonderful things about the helicopter, but I also wanted to go back to school because I wanted to have an advanced practice component. I wanted the independence of seeing and treating patients and prescribing medications."

She still spends one shift each month as a flight nurse, and Rash added a little more onto her plate this fall enrolling in the DNP program at LR.

"The faculty have been amazing," Rash said. "They really care about the students and want them to do well. The content is great, but the amount of attention from the faculty is amazing."

Rash receives 1-on-1 attention from the faculty, while taking her classes online and focusing on her dual-role career. On top of that, she has given lectures to nursing students at LR on her various specialties.

"I've participated in some check-offs for the physical assessment parts of the program, and I've also given a radiology lecture," Rash said. "It was excellent. I was really happy to be able to explain things in radiology terms to the students in a way that I wish I had as a student."

According to Caruso, Rash's field experience and approach adds value to the nurse practitioner students she instructs at LR.

"She teaches anything from health assessment to advanced radiology, to bedside ultrasound, and is extremely well received by students," Caruso said. "She is someone the students look up to and admire; they see themselves in her. Some students were so impressed by her role that Wendy was able to set up an observation experience 1-on-1 with interested students to observe her at work in her unique role."

Rash was recently published in the Journal of Interventional Radiology for a surgical procedure she completed inserting a port for chemotherapy in a patient without damaging the patient's chest tattoo.

"Wendy is an artist; she paints," Caruso said. "She rescues animals at a shelter. She is well accomplished, humble and someone people want to aspire to be. Her commitment to our profession is second to none."

* Photos courtesy of Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center