Life-Flight-Teams are called to transport those in need of critical medical care to an institution capable of managing their condition. On occasion, life-altering events can be prevented from ever occurring, or measures may be taken by both patients and medical providers to reduce the impact these events have. This book was written for two reasons, to enlighten those curious about the flight-nurse profession and to share some take home lessons from these medical emergencies with the public, nurses, and EMS providers. The author is an acute care nurse practitioner for the Cleveland Metro Life Flight Team. After being asked frequently about his career as a life-flight nurse, David Kaniecki decided to answer this question by sharing his more memorable experiences as a life-flight nurse, linking each story to a teachable event. In his book, he describes many of his exciting adventures of critical care transport with various emergent disease processes. For those unfamiliar to critical care, he helps explain these diseases in an easy to understand format prior to sharing his story. David believes the greatest teaching methods are through real life experiences. After each story, he shares key lessons that can be taken away from these events.
About the Author: Dr. David M Kaniecki, DNP, MSN, ACNP-C, RN, CCRN is an acute care nurse practitioner (ACNP) for the Cleveland Metro Life Flight Team where he is responsible for the management of acute and chronically ill or injured patients requiring transport via helicopter, fixed wing, or ground ambulance. David first began his nursing career in 2005 after obtaining an Associate Degree in Nursing (ADN) from North Central State College. He later obtained the Masters of Science in Nursing (MSN) in 2012 and Doctorate of Nursing Practice (DNP) in 2017 from Case Western Reserve University (CWRU) where he maintained a 4.0 GPA. David has practiced in a variety of critical care settings and cared for patients of many disease pathologies and traumatic injuries. Before becoming an ACNP, he worked as a staff nurse in the surgical intensive care unit (ICU), medical ICU, neurological ICU, cardio-vascular ICU, coronary ICU and ICU float pool. With the skills acquired from his experiences in the inpatient hospital setting, in 2008, he became a flight transport nurse for the Cleveland Clinic Critical Care Transport Team to practice in unorthodox environments and later joined the Cleveland Metro Life Flight Team in 2015. David has transported patients who require extreme levels of life support to a higher level of care both in the United States and globally. David has also worked to share his knowledge and experience with students and others in the healthcare field. He authored the book Operation Flight Nurse: Real-Life Medical Emergencies to educate its readers using real-life critical experiences. He has served as a lab instructor, advanced practice skills instructor, guest lecturer, and current faculty ACNP and Flight NP/RN instructor at CWRU. Dr. Kaniecki is a member of the American Association of Critical Care Nurses (AACN) and has numerous certifications and credentials including: Ohio Board Certified Acute Care Nurse Practitioner, Ohio Board Certified Registered Nurse, CCRN (Critical Care Registered Nurse), Advanced Trauma Life Support, Advanced Cardiac Life Support, Pediatric Advanced Life Support, Neonatal Resuscitation, Basic Life Support, and NIH Stoke Scale Certified.