University of North Carolina Athletics
Veteran Leaders Visit UNC Hospitals Air Care Staff
December 11, 2016 | Leadership Academy
By Elizabeth Haus and Elli Moreno, Leadership Lab
This year the Tar Heel Veteran Leaders are flying high as they learn about the importance of leadership within the scope of healthcare. The Veteran Leaders program is the highest tier of leadership training within the Richard A. Baddour Carolina Leadership Academy, with participants working toward mastering their leadership skills in collaboration with their respective coaching staffs. The Veteran Leaders took a field trip to UNC Hospitals on Oct. 10 to learn about the significance of leadership in the jobs of aeromedics. Students met with the air pediatric team; Traci Clark, a registered nurse (RN), Kara Arnath, a respiratory therapist (RT), and Luke McBriant, a helicopter pilot.
The field trip started out with a tour of a pediatric ambulance, which had brightly colored walls on the inside, an incubator for tiny babies, and a second row of seats in the cab where parents and family members could travel with their children. Carolina Air Care takes pride in being the only hospital in the state of North Carolina with a helicopter and care team specifically designated for pediatrics. Clark and Arnath spoke to the students about their jobs and how leadership plays a major role in helping keep patients alive. It is crucial that leadership skills are utilized through communication and execution of care because there is no time to waste in emergency situations. Clark emphasized that “being confident and taking the initiative to do our jobs is something that we have to do every day because we are not just taking care of a child, we are taking care of their family also.”
Another topic that was discussed in detail was stress and leadership. The need for leadership within stressful situations is an overarching theme in many different sports at Carolina. One student asked about was how leadership can be helpful in very stressful situations where they are scared or nervous. Clark responded by saying that ”we have to become masters of the poker face because people look to us to do the job and you can be nervous, but you need to internalize it and do what you know how to do.” It was evident from Clark's response that she had mastered powerful body language and physical presence from her years of experience on the Carolina Air Care team.
The discussion of a poker-face appearance seemed to have a strong impact on many athletes in attendance as they work to cope with stressful situations. Molly Hendrick from women's lacrosse felt that this experience was definitely helpful to her as she works to lead her team through stressful situations on the field. “This experience showed us many useful techniques to lead in stressful situations,” she said. “Remembering to have a poker face and not show panic could really help us on the field. When something is not going right, having a poker face helps all of your teammates stay calm in a pressured situation.”
To conclude the event, the students got to visit the helipad on the rooftop of UNC Hospitals, overlooking all of south campus and the football stadium. Two Carolina blue medic helicopters were open for students to explore. One unique touch was that each helicopter has a Tar Heel footprint on the bottom so that when it is flying through the sky to transport patients, the footprint is visible for all to see. While on the rooftop, many students posed for pictures in the cockpit of the aircraft. This offered the opportunity to ask more questions, including one about the ways in which different personalities of the team are affected by leadership roles. “We all have strong personalities and when we arrive on scene we can't panic because they [parents] entrust us to do our jobs correctly,” said Arnath, who is passionate about the importance of taking care of both the family and the patient.
Leadership plays a role in every aspect of life from sports to saving lives. The skills that are taught through Leadership Academy experiences like this one are invaluable as participants continue to explore the different areas where leadership is present in the real world. The Carolina Air Care team has inspired students at Carolina to continue to learn and grow toward being successful leaders.
