Cowley Press

Christine Kabureck, 39, has a thing for trauma.

Born in Wellington, and having received her R.N. from Butler County Community College, Kabureck has been a practicing nurse for seven years. She is now the assistant director of nursing at the Sumner Regional Medical Center in Wellington. In addition, she works as a paramedic for the Wellington Fire Department and a flight nurse for EagleMed. 

Kabureck first worked at the medical center as a nurses’ aide, then as an R.N. She climbed her way up the ladder to the ADON; this position mainly consists of supervising the staff nurses and aides, covering the emergency room, and relieving people for meal breaks.

On a daily basis, she also works out the staffing needs, so there are enough nurses available, and does a lot of paper pushing, she said.

At the fire department she says, “I work as an R.N. there but I work under the paramedic protocol.”

Kabureck described her position at EagleMed as a flight nurse, “She takes care of critical patients in an air ambulance (an air plane or helicopter).” Her favorite part of work in the medical field, collectively, is the trauma patients. In a small-time city like Wellington, she didn’t get to see a lot of patients in desperate medical need.

“Working back here in the ER, I liked the trauma,” Kabureck said. “I went to flight school just because I was interested in it and decided that it filled my adrenaline-junkie needs.”

Traveling all over the Midwest, Kabureck and her fellow flight nurses and pilots care for patients in serious conditions—both medically and situational. Recently, in Colorado, Kabureck was caring for a patient in a ground ambulance when it was hit by a semitrailer driver.

“We were taking a patient that was unresponsive… and the ambulance driver ran a light, and a semi hit the ambulance, which threw me across the patient,” Kabureck explained. “Which slowed me down from hitting the wall and knocked myself unconscious. Their paramedic got hurt. That’s the only time I’ve ever been hurt!” 

Speaking about her favorite part of the job, she said: “Obviously the patient care. They’re scared to death, not only because they’re hurt, but also they’re scared because usually if you’re riding in the ambulance or the helicopter, any of the air ambulances, they know that something is really wrong.                

So, it’s just to reassure them that they’re going to be fine. You not only get to do the nursing part but also, you’re doing a lot of consoling; making them realize that they’re going to be okay.”

To become a flight nurse, she had to have three years of emergency room or intensive care unit experience and EMS experience. EagleMed is not confined, however, to the Kansas area. “We go all over,” Kabureck said, “Wherever they need us… We’ve just gone everywhere. That’s kind of the fun part.”

The worst part? “The bad part is when you get stranded and you wear the same flight suit for days. And days. And days,” Kabureck said. “The same old flight suit, until you get back to the base and get it cleaned.”

Working all three of these jobs takes a lot of time. Kabureck has a husband and teenage daughter at home. She said, “They’re very understanding. I work every other weekend as a flight nurse, and usually nights and every other weekend are for my kids and my husband.” In her admittedly sparse free time Kabureck enjoys working with horses.