When University of Cincinnati Health launched its Air Care & Mobile Care service in 1984, Diana Deimling was one of the first nurses to climb on board. After six years’ experience in surgical, ICU and emergency nursing, she found the ever-changing flight nursing role to be the right fit.
More than 6,000 flights later, Deimling retired from active flight nursing in November 2024, celebrated by many nurses, physicians and EMS whom she taught and helped orient to the world of caring for patients in a helicopter.
“This has been an amazing career, and I’ve absolutely loved what I’ve done,” Deimling said. “I like the variety. I don’t mind opening the door to the ambulance and saying, ‘What do we have here?’”
When she joined the Air Care team, she was required to become paramedic certified.
“But then I thought, if I’m going to have a paramedic certification, I really need to know what they do,” she said, noting she worked for a while as a part-time paramedic in addition to her flight nursing job.
It’s just one example of her thirst for acquiring and sharing knowledge.
She chaired the ACMC staff development committee for 30 years, helping to educate nurses, paramedics, EMTs and physicians in critical care transport and helicopter EMS. She also continues to provide pre-hospital education to area fire departments and EMS crews.
“In order to stay competent at what we’re doing, we have to have constant education,” Deimling said.
From responding to a traffic crash scene or transporting a patient on life support from one hospital to another, flight nurses need to be prepared for just about any emergency.
“We are trained at—I don’t want to say the same levels as physicians because they obviously have many more years of educational opportunity—but at the same skill set,” barring a few procedures such as field amputations or emergency c-sections, Deimling said.
Deimling also loves research and has participated in or led a number of projects over the years. An early study she was particularly proud of led to protocol and process changes resulting in a drop in the door-to-needle-and-transport timespan by over 30 minutes.
In a high-stress environment like emergency nursing, Deimling found emotional support both at work and at home. For her, it comes from caring for her animals, camping or gardening, and connecting with coworkers.
“You have to have hobbies and things you do on your off time that help you kind of relax,” she said. “I’ve always had dogs and cats and horses. I find animals are very therapeutic.”
Her husband currently leads a fire investigation team, and the arson dog lives in their home.
On the job, Deimling’s colleagues are committed to supporting one another and are very good about consulting and connecting with each other.
“I’ve never had a really, really bad case where a half dozen people didn’t call me and say, ‘Are you OK?’ We do that for each other,” she said.
Although she retired from her work in the air, Deimling continues to be busy on the ground. She has a PRN job that primarily entails nursing and prehospital educational programs.
Deimling is a lifetime ENA member, and she appreciated the education offerings that helped her to maintain her certifications over the years. She has also taught TNCC, along with ACLS, PALS and other courses.
“Education is huge,” Deimling said. “I think probably the biggest thing that I am proud of in my career was helping to educate peers and other people in the medical field, even if they were not in flight nursing.”