Following Flight Nurses For National Nurses Week [VIDEO]

BRAINERD  - For National Nurses Week we followed a group of nurses in Brainerd with Life Link III, a air medical transport service.

While many nurses work in hospitals, doctors' offices, or schools, there are few that take their jobs off the ground.

Laura Adamek is a flight nurse with Life Link III. Laura and her team of pilots, nurses, mechanics and paramedics live a life where at a moments notice they go from zero-60. This was not more obvious than after five minutes of walking into the newly built Life Link III facility the team received a call and was out the door and in the helicopter moments after receiving the call.

Adamek says her life and hospital experience got her ready to make life-saving decisions while on the helicopter.

"Coming from the hospital I will say that this is a completely different animal than the hospital. We take all of the life lessons in critical life thought processes that we had in the hospital in a controlled enviroment and now we move that into a dynamic helicopter."

Based on a report by ABC News, the nurses that work with Life Link III fit into three different categories on the top 10 list of most stressful jobs.

7. Those who fly, and those help them

6. Emergency Personnel

5. Medical Professional

Many of these same position show up on most dangerous jobs lists. The same could be said for the pilots and paramedics with Life Link III.

Because of all the added elements to the job, Adamek says they have a lot of additional education to keep them ready for any scenario.

"We have very high medical training and critical care training that we go through for the medical side. We do have to go through extensive flight and aviation training."

Working in a helicopter can bring added complications to the job. Adamek says the weather in Minnesota brings a  tough element to the job.

"When you moving that patient from the hospital into a helicopter and it's 25 below all your medications are going to freeze up, so things like that you have to take into play and decide how your going to treat patients appropriately. "

The Life Link III team provides a needed service to rural Minnesota. They are getting people the care they need. A Life Link helicopter can bring someone who needs a level 1 trauma center to the Twin Cities in a fraction of the time it would take on the ground, and in the medical profession every minute is valuable.

Flying in a helicopter and a fast paced work environment gives the nurses and Life Link III team a lot of joy in what they do. As any nurse can attest to, Adamek says with this job there are days when you go home physically exhausted and there are the toughest days on the job when you go home mentally and emotionally exhausted.

Nurses are a integral part of our life in Central Minnesota. Life Link III nurses are just a small portion of the larger community of nurses that work hard to create a safer and healthier environment for everyone that they take care of.

So whether there is a nurse helping a mother through labor or assisting in hospice care, thank a nurse for all their hard work.