As High Adventure As It Gets

How Christine is taking her career to infinity and beyond

Christine’s day job may be as an educator/critical care nurse/paramedic for a ground transport team…but when she’s not on an ambulance or providing clinical training - she’s growing her company - The Space Nurse, LLC - a business designed to educate nurses to be out-of-this-world caregivers. Literally.

Suborbital research simulations and feeling those 4 G’s

I have been obsessed with space since I was a kid. I grew up on sci-fi movies, books, and games. I watched every documentary on Discovery or Nat Geo. It makes perfect sense that I ended up in space medicine.

With The Space Nurse she gets to meld her data-analyses and training skills from her educator role with her passion for aerospace science and medicine in austere environments (it doesn’t get more austere than space!).

What I love about critical care is the high-stakes problem-solving. But what I love about my consulting work is the ability to look at the "big picture" of how humans survive in extreme environments.

Christine originally became a nurse (and then added the paramedic certification to be able to take more calls at her current job) because she wanted to be the person who knew what to do in a crisis. But she moved into the space sector because she wanted to be the person preventing the crisis through better design and mission architecture.

Her career started on a medical-surgical floor, then the Trauma ICU, then to the skies with a fixed-wing program. As she has always been obsessed with space - these career moves gave her the most experience with the highest acuity patients and the most direct translation to aerospace.

Her path, as she likes to say, wasn’t linear - but born out of a personal crossroads:

After my mother passed away, something shifted in me. I realized life is too short to play small, and I stopped waiting for “permission” to pursue the things that actually set my soul on fire. When I lost my mother, I realized I could not wait for the industry to catch up. I decided to build it myself.

The turning point was the International Institute of Astronautical Sciences (IIAS) Fundamentals of Astronautics course. Doing suborbital research simulations and feeling 4 Gs in an aerobatic plane opened everything up for me. That led to the Space Medicine course. I immersed myself in the IIAS and became a fellow at the Advanced SpaceLife Research Institute (ASRI). I realized that while there are plenty of engineers in space, we need more clinicians who understand how a body actually fails in microgravity.

She’s currently researching Human Systems Integration (HSI) and working on a concept for a technology for medication stability and repackaging for long-duration spaceflight. She recently authored the “Acute Care and Trauma” chapter for an upcoming Springer textbook on Aerospace Nursing. Her goal?

Move the needle from “how do we get there” to “how do we stay healthy while we’re there.”

What’s next? Podcast interviews and a presentation for the Aerospace Medical Association’s next conference - “Nursing Roles in Telemedicine Triage for Space Flight Analogs: Preparing Nurses for Remote Decision Making” - showcasing how nurses belong in space medicine.

I call it a misnomer because nurses already make remote decisions every day. We need the space industry to recognize that. I have been auditing virtual nurse and biomedical engineer training to see where the gaps are. I am proposing a course to ensure nurses are ready for mission control roles.

She is soon launching a workshop and course called “The Orbital Patient” which teaches the physiological shifts that happen once you leave Earth’s gravity. Christine also serves as the Research and Education Chair for Women in Aerospace Medicine (WAM) and is building out a speaker series to highlight other women in the field (we love that!).

"You belong in the room"

And while we always talk about fitting a career into an adventurous life or vice-versa…Christine chooses a different word: integration.

My career is the adventure. Why space? Because it is the ultimate “austere environment.” If we can solve healthcare for a small crew on a multi-year mission to Mars, we can solve healthcare for the most remote, underserved parts of Earth. Space forces us to be efficient, innovative, and incredibly disciplined with our resources.

So while she’s busy running clinical education for a transport team during the day and building her business at night and studying NASA standards - she acknowledges that her work-life balance is a work in progress.

But I’m happier being “busy” with work I love than “balanced” in a job that doesn’t challenge me.

Healthcare in space is as “high adventure” as it gets. And to Christine -

It’s healthcare where the environment is just as much of a patient as the human is. It’s practicing clinical excellence while hurtling through the vacuum of space or standing in the middle of a remote forest. It’s the intersection of high-level science and raw human grit.

And her advice to those looking to add more adventure to their lives or careers?

Stop waiting for an invitation. There is no "perfect timing" fairy. If you want to be a wilderness nurse, a flight nurse, or a space nurse, start reading the manuals today. Apply for the grant. Send the email. The gatekeepers aren't as scary as they look once you realize you belong in the room.

To keep up with Christine, give her a follow on Instagram or LinkedIn and check out her website to see what The Space Nurse is all about!