journey

PHOENIX FOCUS | Anne Marie Lutrick
School of Nursing
“University of Phoenix made it convenient for me as
an adult learner—and not all institutions do that.”
Anne Marie Lutrick
The first time she heard the whop-whop-whop of a helicopter’s
spinning rotors as it touched down on an emergency helipad at
Maricopa Medical Center in Phoenix, her pulse quickened. She
thought, ‘Someday I’m going to do that.’
From dramatic helicopter rescues to delivering patients to
hospitals—and all the life-or-death decisions in between—flight
nursing appeals to the highly skilled registered nurse’s sense
of adventure. “This job forced me to move out of my comfort
zone,” says Lutrick, a 44-year-old single mother of two teenaged
daughters who lives in Glendale, Arizona.
Preparing to takeoff
Inspired by her mother, who worked as a nurse, Lutrick began
volunteering as a candy striper at a Phoenix nursing home at age
15. Wearing a pink-and-white striped uniform and white shoes, she
worked with the elderly during social activities. “I really enjoyed
the one-on-one interaction with the patients, even though it was
definitely not something I wanted to do long term,” she says.
A year later, the career-minded 16-year-old landed a position at
John C. Lincoln Hospital in Phoenix, where she received on-the-job
training as an electrocardiogram (EKG) technician.
She worked in this role on weekends and school breaks
for two years, until she graduated from high school.
Later, she worked in the telemetry unit at the hospital,
where she monitored patients for heart rate, rhythm
and breathing. During this time, she began her nursing
education at GateWay Community College, where she
earned an associate nursing degree.
A golden opportunity
In 1998, the acclaimed Mayo Clinic opened a hospital
in Phoenix, and Lutrick received a ground-floor
opportunity to work there two months before the
hospital opened. Widely regarded as one of the world’s
greatest hospitals, Mayo specializes in treating difficult
cases and spends more than $500 million a year on
groundbreaking research. For Lutrick, her job at Mayo
made it possible to work and advance her nursing
education under a tuition reimbursement plan. She
eventually earned a bachelor’s degree in nursing from
Grand Canyon University and later a Master of Science
in Nursing (MSN) from University of Phoenix.
“When I was in nursing school, I had two daughters under the age
of 5, and it was a very challenging time. As I worked through my
bachelor’s and master’s programs, it meant a lot of time at work or
behind a computer, away from my kids,” she recalls. Despite the
pangs of mother’s guilt, she says, “It showed my daughters how
important your education is—that you need to pursue your goals
and never stop.”
She credits the University of Phoenix MSN program and Mayo
Clinic Hospital for making it possible for her to earn an advanced
degree. “University of Phoenix made it convenient for me as an
adult learner—and not all institutions do that,” she says. “To be
with my peers here on the hospital’s campus made it a lot easier to
deal with the hardship of being away from my family.”
Flying high
Today, Lutrick does double duty as a per diem flight nurse with
Air Methods Native Air Ambulance and as a nursing supervisor at
Mayo Clinic Hospital’s Solid Organ Transplant Center in Phoenix,
where she oversees 30 registered nurse coordinators. She enjoys
being “a change agent to improve process and workflows.”
With transplant centers in Arizona, Florida and Minnesota, Mayo
Clinic performs more transplants than any other medical center
in the world. “It’s a very rewarding profession because you get to
see patients who are not well receive an organ and start to feel
better and recover,” Lutrick says. “But it’s also a very challenging
profession because it doesn’t always go well. There are challenges
that arise before transplant and after transplant. But I
always like a challenge—and finding creative solutions
to problems. Working in transplant has all those pieces
of the puzzle.”
Off duty from Mayo, the sky is the limit for the per
diem flight nurse who works as part of an emergency
and critical care transport team aboard a helicopter.
She recalls one of her most rewarding missions, when
the team rescued a stroke victim in a rural region of
Arizona. They flew him to Mayo Clinic in time to deliver
a life-saving drug called tissue plasminogen activator
(tPA), which can dissolve blood clots and restore blood
flow to the brain if administered within three hours of
the onset of stroke symptoms. “He made a full recovery,
and his wife was very grateful that we were able to save
his life,” she says.
Looking back on her rewarding career, she offers this
advice to her daughters—or anyone following their
career path: “Don’t ever give up on your dreams and
goals, even if they seem impossible!”
For information on this program, including on-time
completion rates, the median debt incurred by students
who completed the program and other important
information, please visit phoenix.edu/programs/
gainful-employment.html.
28 PHOENIX FOCUS | Spring 2016
alumni.phoenix.edu 29