DAISY gives AirCare nurse lifetime achievement award

NORTH ENGLISH — The innovative manager of AirCare retired this year with an unexpected honor. Diane Lamb, of North English, was given a lifetime achievement DAISY award after nearly 20 years with the medical air transport.

“Two of the nurses that I worked with nominated me,” Lamb said from her home last week.

As nurse manager, Lamb oversaw the nursing staff and paramedics for AirCare, which has medical transports in Iowa City, Waterloo and Dubuque.

Growing up in Gibson, Lamb knew she wanted to be a nurse. “It was just always something I wanted to do.”

Lamb graduated from Tri-County High School and earned a Bachelor of Science Degree in nursing from Mt. Mercy College in Cedar Rapids in May of 1982. She received her master’s degree from Mt. Mercy in 2016.

Lamb was a clinical nurse at Baylor University Medical Center from 1982-1983 but returned to Iowa for family reasons, taking a position as staff nurse in the medical intensive care unit at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics in 1983. She moved to the emergency treatment center in 1985, becoming the assistant nurse manager in 1993.

In 2001 Lamb became the assistant nurse manager for AirCare, and in 2004, she became nurse manager.

Lamb liked being a flight nurse, she said. “It’s very independent practice.” Though flight nurses and paramedics follow protocol, they evaluate patients and determine plans of care themselves rather than having doctors giving orders.

The helicopter is called to get clinical expertise and to cut down on transport time, said Lamb, but only a small percentage of AirCare calls require the helicopters to land at scenes of accidents and medical emergencies. “Most of the time it’s hospital to hospital,” said Lamb. Patients are taken by ground to local hospitals and flown to other facilities from there if they need specialized care.

AirCare works with emergency management services so that emergency workers know how to set up a landing zone and keep everyone safe on the rare occasions that AirCare has to land somewhere other than hospital landing zones.

Air transport is expensive, said Lamb, but most patients pay very little for it out of pocket. The agency works with Air Methods and with insurance companies so patients pay little for air transport.

Helicopters cost millions and burn a lot of fuel. Add all the medical equipment and “that’s not cheap,” Lamb admitted.

AirCare isn’t limited to the air, either. AirCare put together a ground team for the C6-Zero explosion last year, said Lamb, because weather conditions wouldn’t allow it to put helicopters in the air.

The AirCare people, physicians, support staff are “wonderful people.” Anything she’s accomplished “is really about the team that I’ve had,” she said.

“People love to work in medical transport,” Lamb said. “I think it’s the emergency care aspect. It’s completely different than bedside nursing. It’s really been a good career.”

When DAISY considers a nurse for an award, it looks for someone who has shown dedication to nursing through active mentoring, by advocating for their patients and by promoting a positive image of nursing, the DAISY website says. It honors nurses who have served as a beacon of inspiration to others at all stages of their careers and in the various roles of nursing.

Barbara Schuessler said in her nomination, “Diane’s passion to provide exemplary care is evident in all that she does.

“Her teams are well trained with policies, procedures and protocols, much of which she has created herself,” Schuessler said.

Lamb led her team to its first Commission on Accreditation of Medical Transport Systems accreditation in 2014. CAMTS is the only accreditation agency that offers worldwide safety standards for ground inter-facility and air medical transport systems, ensuring the highest possible patient care and safety in the transport environment, Schuessler said.

“Diane is known throughout the state as an expert in pre-hospital transportation. She is the leading authority on air and ground transport for UIHC,” Schuessler said. “I have known and worked with Diane for almost 40 years. She has been a mentor and a friend.”

“She has been a role model of mine since starting my career in nursing at the University of Iowa in 1997,” said Missy Kiger-Bell in her nomination of Lamb. “My dream was always to be a flight nurse, and I admired the team she led from my first interaction.”

Lamb helped Kiger-Bell become a well-rounded, successful fight nurse. “Not only was she the manager but flew right beside us no matter what the shift was,” Kiger-Bell said. “Diane was able to not only develop young flight nurses and paramedics to expand the program, but due to her leadership style, AirCare has the most tenured flight crews in the state of Iowa.”

“It’s a huge honor to get this award,” said Lamb, yet so few people know about it. Patients and families of patients who have had nurses positively affect their lives can nominate them for a DAISY. The University of Iowa Hospitals has forms for DAISY on each floor, said Lamb, and they are available online.