Aggie nursing from above

The next time you see a Memorial Hermann Life Flight helicopter in the sky, Anne Voltin ’17, BSN, RN, CCRN-CMC, EMT-P, may be on board, helping those most vulnerable.

The former Texas A&M University School of Nursing student always knew she wanted to be a nurse. Inspired by her father, class of 1984, Voltin set her sights on attending Texas A&M. After entering nursing school in 2015, she began honing her skills through various college jobs; she worked as a standardized patient at the Texas A&M Health Clinical Learning Resource Center, a personal caregiver with Comfort Keepers and a student employee with St. Mary’s Catholic Church.

Upon graduation, Voltin accepted a job in the cardiovascular intensive care unit at St. Luke’s Health – Baylor St. Luke’s in the Texas Medical Center. She also took on a PRN, or as-needed, nursing position as an on-call home hospice nurse, continuing her passion for home health she developed during her time at Comfort Keepers.

“St. Luke’s taught me so much,” said Voltin. “Their advanced work with heart failure exposed me to caring for ECMO, the Impella Ventricular Support System, IABP, LVAD, EKOS patients and many more. I had amazing coworkers, bosses and interdisciplinary teams that really invested in me and challenged what I thought was possible in medicine.”

In addition to Voltin ‘s inpatient work, she believes her extracurricular nursing experiences helped enhance her skills.

“Anyone can serve the community with their knowledge, and I highly recommend placing yourself in new situations,” she said. “There are so many opportunities. I volunteered as a nurse with the Houston Rodeo, worked finish line medical for the Houston Marathon and attended summer camps as a nurse. I was chosen to serve as the first aid lead for conferences with 3,000+ attendees, provided care in a small clinic serving immigrants here in Houston, traveled on medical missions to South America and more.”

In December 2022, Voltin accepted a position working with Memorial Hermann’s Life Flight air medical transport service team. No longer on the hospital floor, she flies on a helicopter to care for her patients. The Light Flight staff is made up of 21 pilots, 21 flight nurses, 18 paramedics, eight dispatchers and eight mechanics. Each helicopter carries a team of a pilot, nurse and paramedic.

Drawing from her bedside experiences and volunteer nursing in the community, Voltin feels well-prepared to care for patients of all ages and conditions.

“Whether we pick the patient up from a field, a highway, an emergency room, an ICU or even an isolette with the NICU flight team, I have loved taking nursing to the skies. And yes, I wear my Aggie ring on every flight.”

Just before flight, a patient looked to Voltin and expressed they were no longer scared because they were flying with an Aggie nurse.