Adrenaline, Reimagined: LCCC Graduate Soars as Flight Nurse

Andrew Harmon Trades Thrill-Seeking Fun for Life-Saving Missions as an LCCC-Trained Flight Nurse

By: Leigh Keeton

In his younger days, Andrew Harmon was always looking for his next adrenaline rush.

“I was driving too fast and jumping off stuff. I rode BMX bikes, dirt bikes, four wheelers, you name it,” Harmon said. “But the older I get, the less crazy stuff I want to do.”

These days, Harmon, 39, still gets a kick of adrenaline. But he does so by saving lives, not risking his own. He works as a flight nurse for University Hospitals AirMed, the medical helicopter program of University Hospitals of Cleveland.

“It’s exciting,” Harmon said. “The helicopter moves really fast, so your time’s limited in terms of the procedures you need to perform and medications you need to give.”

Intense, rapid care has always been Harmon’s thing. Before he became a flight nurse, he was a flight paramedic for both UH AirMed and Mercy LifeFlight in Toledo. And before that he was an EMS-paramedic for LifeCare Ambulance in Lorain and Elyria.

“Every day, every call was different,” he said. “Even if you were picking up the same type of patients, you’re still at a different house, in a different neighborhood. And you’re taking care of patients. That’s what I love.”

Finding His Way at LCCC

Out of high school, Harmon said he was one of those kids who had no idea what he wanted to do with his life. In 2007, he figured it out.

“I was attending classes at LCCC part time and working as a landscaper,” he said. “My neighbor, who was an Avon Lake firefighter, had suggested I go to paramedic school, but I wasn’t sure. It wasn’t until I went on vacation to Key West, came home, and thought, ‘I have got to do something else.’”

Harmon signed up for Lorain County Community College’s Emergency Medical Services – Paramedic program that same day. And he hasn’t looked back since. The program was challenging, but it gave him a solid base in emergency medicine. After he graduated in 2008, Harmon landed his job with LifeCare Ambulance.

“You’re very prepared for the job, but you also don’t know a lot about the job,” he said of his first year.

It wasn’t until his first cardiac arrest call that Harmon said he passed what he deems “the first real test as a paramedic.”

“That’s kind of the moment where you think, ‘Oh man, I better be well trained enough to do my job,’” he said. “You’re in the back of the ambulance by yourself and all of your knowledge comes together, and you just start taking care of a patient.”

From Paramedic to RN

Since his first cardiac arrest call, Harmon estimates he’s been on more than 1,000 since.

Somewhere amid them, he transitioned from the ground into the air, earning his flight paramedic certification.

Flying with Mercy LifeFlight and then UH AirMed helicopters was a welcome challenge for Harmon. And as he wrapped up a decade in the field, he noticed himself thinking beyond his role as a paramedic.

“I got to a point in my career where I was taking care of the sickest patients that we had,” he said. “And I could think critically about not only what I needed to do for the patient, but what the hospital needed to focus on once we got there. I started to look further into their care, instead of just the moments I had them.”

That’s when Harmon decided to go back to LCCC. He enrolled in the paramedic to registered nurse program and, as an incoming paramedic, was given prior learning credit toward the associate degree in nursing program.

The advanced placement helped, but the program was still rigorous and demanding. By this time, Harmon was married with three children, working two 24-hour shifts each week on the helicopter, and spending what seemed like every spare moment in either lecture, lab, or clinicals.

“It was intense,” he said. “I had moments of doubt. I was missing time at home. I was missing things with my family. But in the end, I kept looking toward the opportunities that the nursing program opens for you. That made me come back the next day.”

Harmon said he got through each day with the help of caffeine and family. Special moments with his oldest daughter, now 14, had a way of reenergizing him.

“I would pick her up from school and she would tell me all the time, ‘Daddy, a kid fell on the playground today. And I want to be like you, so I took care of him.’ Hearing stuff like that was always so cool.”

As he looks back on his 20-year career, Harmon said sometimes he wishes he had figured it all out sooner. But sometimes he doesn’t.

“I don’t know if age 20 or 25 was the right time for me to do all of this,” he said. “I don’t know if I would’ve succeeded if I had started it then.”

Learn more about healthcare pathways at LCCC at www.lorainccc.edu/health.