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EMS Flight Safety Network Defends Miss Colorado After “The View” Hosts Mock Her

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Kelley Johnson, Miss Colorado, Joy Behar, Flight Safety Network Defends Miss Colorado After "The View" Hosts Mock Her Monologue

What It’s Like To Fly America’s Best

“To do what nobody else will do, a way that nobody else can do, in spite of all we go through; is to be a nurse.” ~Rawsi Williams, RN

Miss Colorado 2015, Kelley Johnson, is responsible for one of the most memorable performances at a Miss America pageant, ever.

Like a lot of Flight Safety Network members, I swelled with pride watching her skip the traditional song and dance, and go right to heart of nursing in her pageant monologue.

Miss Johnson gets it.

Miss Johnson knows what it means to serve.

Miss Johnson knows what it means to give.

Put simply…

Miss Johnson is a nurse.

A Team Like No Other Teams

For the record, I am not a nurse.

But I do contribute to flight nursing in my own way. I am part of the team.

I am part of a three person air medical flight crew team consisting of one flight nurse, one flight paramedic, and one Helicopter Emergency Medical Services (HEMS) pilot.

The flight team is the visible hand of a much bigger team.

The flight crew is the proverbial “tip of the iceberg” you see above the water.

The rest of the team, the people who really make air medical safe for everyone – the “iceberg below the water,” part of the team – is what we collectively call Emergency Medical Services Flight Safety Network.

The EMS Flight Safety Network Team is all the people who keep flight crews safe:

  • EMTs, Paramedics, Dispatchers,
  • Nurses, Pilots, Landing Zone Officers,
  • Flight Communication Specialists, Dispatchers
  • Firefighters, Volunteers, Police, Respiratory Therapists,
  • Emergency Staff, Specialty Transport Teams, Hospital Security,
  • Trauma Doctors, Mechanics – and last but not least – The family and friends who support these professionals

The View Without a Clue

I think it’s safe to say the hosts of “The View” had no idea how many professionals they offended with their disparaging comments about nursing.

Clearly, they have no idea what it’s like to watch a professional nurse at work.

–They’ve never held hands in a prayer circle with the family of a trauma patient who asks you, your nurse, and your paramedic partners to join him and his extended family as they pray for the life of their loved one.

–They’ve never watched a nurse bring an unresponsive child back to life right in front of your eyes. –Remember, there are no doctors at the accident scenes of car crashes.

No, The View hosts have never watched a nurse explain to a young mother the reason why we’re not going to fly her 3-year old girl in the helicopter….and how her little girl already has her wings.

No, the hosts of the view don’t know any of that.

The hosts of “The View” have no idea how many they offended with their unkind words.

I won’t waste any more time bringing attention to a show I do not support. My only two comments for the hosts of the view:

  1. Your actions and comments speak loudly and clearly
  2. When you take cheap shots at nurses, you’re messing with the whole EMS & Air Medical “trailer park” – Not a very smart idea

The Light Bulb Goes On

I fretted over this blog post more than any I’ve written in a long while. Afraid I wouldn’t find the right words to do my teammates – all flight nurses and flight medics (all medical and aviation professionals) – the credit they deserve.

And then the light bulb went on….

I don’t have to find the right words. I already have them.

Where are the words?

With the same team I’ve leaned on for most of my adult life – The EMS Flight Safety Network Team.

Here are real Flight Nurse comments from the Emergency Medical Services Flight Safety Network facebook page:

Brittany Dawn Ashley writes:

Dear Joy Behar and the other women on The View:

“I am a flight nurse. I carry my “doctor stethoscope” in the lower leg pocket of my flight suit. Heaven forbid you or any of your loved ones are ever in an emergency situation requiring an air lift. But if you are, you will be more than happy to see myself or another flight nurse or medic with our “doctor stethoscope”.

Because there aren’t any doctors in many areas where we work. And a nurse or medic with a “doctor stethoscope” just might be the one who saves your life. There aren’t any doctors on the side of the interstate where a multi-car accident has just occurred. There aren’t any doctors in a field beside the river, where I’ve been called to a jet ski accident. There aren’t any doctors in the back of ambulances.

Yes, doctors are a phone call away from me; but they aren’t there with me to actually see, touch, and listen to my patient. I’m not a doctor, I’m just a nurse…..but before you mock Miss Colorado (and all nurses essentially) just know that I am trained to use my stethoscope and in doing so, could save your life. I am by no means saying I’m the best…. I work with some extremely amazing flight nurses and medics. Just wanted to share the day to day reality of our job in regards to the inconsiderate, uneducated comments made on The View.”

Nobody says it better than real nurses.

—————————

Here is your chance to support the EMS Flight Safety Net Team. Your support of nurses is important.

Leave a comment supporting nurses and the work they do. Show your support!

They’ve absolutely earned it! 

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Picture of Troy Shaffer
Troy Shaffer
About the Author: Troy is an Air Medical Career Expert passionate about a team approach to improving air medical safety from the ground up. Troy is a former Army medic, Army pilot, Coast Guard pilot and EMS pilot. Troy has taught hundreds of wannabe flight medics, flight nurses and EMS pilots the exact steps needed to launch air medical careers.

158 Responses

    1. Hello to all Nurses , Doctors & All in the medical field :
      To Miss Behar : First of all in your reply to the nurses all across america& around the world. When you say. Oh I didn’t mean to say that .You miss Behar are a liar! If you didn’t mean to say what you said . Just exactly what did you mean to say? When you use the old stand by phrase ( didn’t mean to offend ) again you are a liar . You miss Behar along with your other hosts on this waste of energy of a show ( The Viewless ) think you can destroy someone’s lively hood and profession by mocking what they do for a living .
      What the hell did you grow up on . As far as I’m concerned along with a growing number of not just medical personal but everyday citizens . You showed the whole world what you are made of . Nothing worth being above ground . You are a liar,& you Joy Behar are pathetic

    1. I agree with you!!! That show is so bad and Joy Behar is probably the biggest
      idiot on that show. She has no clue what these people do for a living.
      SHUT UP JOY BEHAR!!!!

  1. Those ladies on the View are the most one sided women I have ever seen..if you don’t agree with them they try to put you down. .and half the time they don’t know what the hell they are talking about…no wonder the ratings are dropping so fast.

    1. Steve,

      I have to confess I’ve never watched the show. I’m not a big fan of liberal television. I did watch the replayed segment where they bashed Miss Colorado, and to be kind, I was not impressed.

      Thanks for commenting.

      Clear Skies & Tailwinds

  2. You know who else uses “Doctor Stethoscopes”? Military service medics/corpsmen, and we’re damn good. Boehner is just one of those people that try and make something out of nothing, and it backfired tremendously.

    If I were the CEO of Littman I would not create two different types of stethoscopes I would market them under the same brand name and give out free ones to devoted nurses everywhere.
    Just my 2¢

  3. Hope all you faithrul The View watchers saw what ws suppose to be an apology but it sounded more to me like they were making excuses”Joy even said she wasn’t really paying attention to what was said…they claim it is just a misunderstanding…yeah right. Stupidity on the part of the entire View team. I don’t understand the whole jest of this program except to poke fun at a lot of people.

    1. I watched it today to see if someone would say they are sorry! NOPE! Joy squirm in that chair!!!!!!!!!! I hope you are not sick and need a hospital! Might get the chef with a stethoscope around his neck for a nurse! The nurses put in long hours of schooling, and long hours at the hospital or where ever they work! My Nurses saved my life and love them all to heaven and back. They do more than a Doctor does! I think the VIEW should be cancelled and make it tomorrow~ Low class if anything and Rude and dumb! That money they are making it should be the money a nurse makes~ I will not be watching it! Never have but it was on the other day and could not get to the changer, is how I heard it!BOYCOTT THE VIEW! no ratings no view!

  4. As a Critical Care Transport Nurse, I was blessed enough to count on the skills, knowledge and experience of an amazing flight team. In very few instances did we have a physician onboard (mostly for NICU). Thank you for standing up for us, and with us. We all complement each other’s strengths in delivering the most amazing csre! Thank you!

  5. I’m calling for a boycott of the view. Their view is skewed. It does not reflect working women’s real issues. Typical elitist mentality. They have no idea about real life, yet presume to dictate how we should think. Joy just shit in her own nest because no woman with half a brain will watch this show now. They depend on a female audience for their ratings. Come on girls, let’s make sure that the powers that be understand us.

  6. The view is nothing more than a bunch of liberal loudmouths that no one has respect for, I work in allied Healthcare and honestly there is no more noble career than that of a nurse, Joy Behar is an idiot and I would love for someone to stitch her mouth shut! There should be a call to ABC, time to boycott the view, boycott it into oblivion!

  7. I must take offense to the stupid remarks made by “The View”. I have been in EMS for 38 years now and guess who taught me my splinting and bandaging skills. The Nurses that I have had the privilege of working with in the field and the ER are superb, The View has messed with the wrong crowd. Well done Miss Colorado…

  8. Thank you EMS Flight Safety Network for putting into words the frustration so many of us felt from the ignorant comments made on The View. I do not watch the show regardless and never would. I did watch video clips from the Miss America pageant. I loved how she presented herself…it was REAL. Nurses have more talent than most can ever imagine-it takes character, guts, courage. We constantly have to improvise and think out of the box, think on our toes, be creative. Every new day is s challenge, and things come up that require so many different reactions. It doesn’t require only learned and developed skills, but also the innate ability to genuinely CARE about the well being of others. And the stethoscope is an extension of us, literally. We use it constantly to assess and let us hear what is going on inside that patient! Anyone capable of mocking what a nurse does-simply is shallow, uneducated, and lacks that ability to genuinely care about others. Because honestly, there is NO other feasible explanation. Nurses bust their asses during s 12 hour shift. In any given 12 hours, a nurse might take care of a stroke victim, a drowning, a sexually abused child, someone bitten by a snake, someone who fell and broke a hip, someone having a massive heart attack, someone having kidney stones, a psychiatric patient in a crisis, a child with a broken arm…..YES all of those in a single shift, and more of less acuity mixed in, in an ER setting. And that nurse goes home, takes off her scrubs and stethoscope, smiles and cherishes her own family, then gets right back up the next day and does it all over again. If that isn’t talent of some sort, well, what a shame. It might not look pretty, but it is truly awesome that women choose this way to serve others. Add to that, the tremendoue people who serve as paramedics, EMTs, flight nurses, flight medics…it is all such a huge family of people willing to serve others every day. And for that ignorant woman to use her platform on a national TV show to mock our profession-well, was beyond insensitive. It was just plain stupid.

  9. I stated it on another post, and I will repeat it here. As a pre-hospital provider (EMT and Medic), I’ve worn the “Dr Stethoscope” for 35+ years and I will stand shoulder to shoulder with any nurse, any day of the week, and support their professionalism and work. The hosts of “The View” demonstrated their stupidity for the entire viewing public to see and hear. What a bunch of twits! Excellent work Ms. Colorado!

  10. ‘The View’ is nothing but a bunch of cackling ‘have beens’ that have no purpose. The show is pathetic and this is just one more reason why. My Mom is a retired nurse and I have been involved in Pre-Hospital EMS for over 25 years and consider this a pure insult to those of us who do the job that most cannot.

  11. I stopped watching the view when Barbara left. In my opinion it is a group of angry women with only one point of view and if you don’t agree with them you are wrong. The view has no relavance. Nurses are gifted, caring, intelligent and skilled professionals. Joy should apologize, but I wouldn’t hold your breath. She is an angry self-righteous person who can’t see beyond her view.

  12. You mess with the medical staff that automatically means you mess with the rest of public safety we all are one big family and I as a LEO support Miss Colorado and rest of the amazing nurses and medical staff I work with daily they are like a second family to me.

  13. Women of ‘the view’, you did it this time. You pissed off the wrong group of people. Nurses, medics, EMTs, we are all one professional, caring, well educated, group of healthcare providers. We are the ones who come to your aid when you need it most and you have dared to demean all of us with your insensitive and I’m thinking comments. I dare any of you to walk one day in our shoes. Walk 1 12 hour shift beside any of us and see what our lives are really like. And then see how we use our doctor stethoscopes, and see if Miss Colorado was just reading out her emails. Yes ladies, you chose to demean the wrong profession. We health care providers are proud of what we do.

  14. Well I wish somebody would call her at 2 o’clock in the morning when you haven’t slept for 24 hours! And then ask if she can go ahead and remember what the correct calculation is. Oh and by the way if you make a mistake you’re going to kill somebody!

  15. not a fan of the view! but. these are Hollywood people are paid to talk not educate them selves on the issues. the stethoscope is a tool of the healthcare profession not just used by doctors but by nurses,emt’s, paramedics, emt-I’s, and much more. there are alot of skilled people out there and at least this contestant was attempting t and i thought very well giving a gimps into the life of a healthcare worker. please don’t let attention be taken away from the the proper place.

  16. Idiots!!!!! The View is nothing but a bunch of stupid liberal ladies that don’t know what the meaning of a nurse is. I will b ugly now & hope the View panel ladies get real sick & the only ones whom will take care of them will b a devoted nurse. I don’t watch the View & u shouldn’t either.

  17. My family has encountered some amazing nurses in our life time. Caring, concerned, skilled.. They have made all the difference in the world. Thank u o anyone’s who serves in the medical field, on EMS flights etc. You r truly a gift & I m so very thankful for u all. I hope the View quickly becomes one of three most unwatched shorts on TV.

  18. I see no need to defend Miss Colorado. Look at the situation: nursing is an honorable vocation. Anyone with an IQ over 12 knows that. Miss Colorado is a credit to her vocation, and it to her. Contrast this with the childish, gossipy-girls-with-cell-phones mentality of “The View” and all those who waste their time watching it. (If Miss Colorado was far left, Joy Behar would never have DARED to make fun of her.) Joy Behar and her ilk contribute absolutely nothing constructive to this country. Ridiculing and disparaging those who actually do something constructive with their lives is one sure mark of a loser. “It seems as if you like to talk. I like to let people talk who like to talk. It makes it easy to find out how full of shit they are.” (Jackie Chan, “Rush Hour”)

  19. Joy. You pissed off A lot of people. Maybe you should just stop talking. Your apology is not real.., you were told to apologize I’m
    Sure!!! Maybe you need to be replaced with an intelligent woman who knows what she is saying rather than excusing yourself in Your apology by saying I don’t know what I was saying. Whatever.

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