Being a Flight Nurse Saved My Life

"Love and compassion know no language, no one country."

Thibault, seen here on a desert tour in Abu Dhabi.

Jenni Thibault was a registered nurse in a small town. When she became a flight nurse for AirMed International, her world changed forever. She shares her well-traveled story with us.

Coming from a small, Southern town of less than 13,000 people was a blessing and a curse. I woke up everyday surrounded by the most amazing family and friends, worked in a hospital beside people I had trusted my entire life, some of them were the nurses and doctors who cared for my mother following my birth. Life was easy. Hardly exciting, but it was picturesque and representative of every small town and the slow paced life it has to offer.

Now the curse: 13,000 people. I repeat, 13,000 people. There are apartment complexes in Hong Kong with ten times that many people in a city block or two. How do I know this? Because my ever-moving, ever-changing family lives there. The adventurous side of the family, anyway.

It only took one time visiting to fall in love with Asia. The many cultures represented by the melting pot of nationalities and cultures in Hong Kong blew me away. I would go home to 13,000 people and want more, and then one day opportunity knocked. So, I packed my bags, went through training, and moved to Hong Kong to become a flight nurse with AirMed. I knew that if I didn't go, I’d regret it.

Wait. I'm the team?

Thibault's extraordinary photo of Big Ben

During my flight nurse training, I was reminded of things I hadn't reviewed since nursing school and scared mindless at the possibility of someone crashing on me at 40,000 feet and with no “code team.” 

Wait. I’m the team? Me and just one other person? I quickly learned to love the thrill and the opportunity to restore a person’s faith over an ocean, on their way home, and often following a tragic event.

After coming out of the initial, almost immobilizing, fear of being “alone” in the sky with a critical patient, I started to see the world. In one year, I filled an entire passport. A few months later, my extra pages were a quarter of the way filled.

I've ridden camels in Abu Dhabi, seen Big Ben at a very late evening sunset, stood at the base of a 112 foot tall bronze Buddha in Hong Kong, gotten a sunburn in the Philippines, and stood in front of Vasco de Gama’s tomb in historic Belem, Portugal. That is just off the top of my head. The countries and cities visited are too many to list.

Left: Lantau Peak in Hong Kong;  Right: Fenway Park in Boston

So, as if being a nurse wasn’t enough of a rewarding career, I get to see the world at the same time. In any setting I find myself in, I get to be the person that patients trust. I am able to be a part of their lives when they are most vulnerable, and they want me there. Most people cannot even say that about loved ones or family members, and I get to say it about complete strangers every single time I go to work. 

It quickly becomes evident that there are no strangers on medical flights, not for long anyway.

As an international flight nurse, I see the world through the love of a Muslim for his child, the patience of a Buddhist when travel logistics aren’t perfect, and the empathy of Christian giving up her seat for a sicker person. People say it is such a big world, that people are so different. Maybe we aren’t all that different. 

Thibault (left) and colleague
in Lisbon, Portugal.

I’ve come so far from my 13,000 person town, but I know that when things go wrong, love and compassion know no language, no religion and no one country.

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Jenni Thibault, RN
AirMed International Flight Nurse

Find out more about AirMed memberships which get you home if you are ill or injured while traveling anywhere in the world at airmed.com.