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STAR BIXBY, BSN

Flight Nurse Takes Career to New Heights
with BSN

For as long as she can remember, Star Bixby has taken care of
those around her. As a young girl, Star’s mother was chronically
ill, and her frequent exposure to the hospital while visiting her
influenced the path that Star would later take. After high school, she
earned the ADN from a nursing school near her hometown of the Finger
Lakes region in New York. She became a critical care nurse for Schuyler
Hospital, a critical access hospital with a skilled nursing facility and started
to volunteer as an Emergency Medical Technician Intermediate with the
local Volunteer Ambulance Association. She also obtained the Pre-Hospital
Registered Nurse certification. “I have always loved the challenge of
working in trauma,” Star says.

Discovering flight nursing

Later in her career, Star moved to Pennsylvania and joined the trauma
intensive care unit and surgical intensive care unit of Robert Packer
Hospital. It was then that she became interested in flight nursing.
“I really liked the idea of getting to use skills that I don’t use in the
hospital,” Star says. “In flight nursing, you perform advanced critical care
tasks while transporting critically ill or injured patients—things that regular
nurses don’t do. Whether it’s intraosseous line insertions or endotracheal
intubations, our job is to address critical needs.”

Star left the bedside in 2000 to become a full-time flight nurse, first with
Guthrie One Helicopter and then STAT MedEvac. In 2006, Star joined
Geisinger Life Flight and also became a clinical instructor for the
Pennsylvania College of Technology, teaching paramedic students in the
emergency department.

A life change

Star met her husband, a critical care flight paramedic, while the couple
was doing what they love: saving lives. They married in 2006 and had a
daughter in 2008. They share a passion for their work, but as their
lives changed, both knew they needed to make career changes.

“Our daughter has grown up around the helicopter pad, sleeping on the
couch at our work until one of us gets off work late at night,” Star says.
She and her husband decided to give up their full-time flight jobs to pursue
other positions. First, however, Star needed to take the steps to get there.

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12 | Transforming Healthcare Through Education