By Christina Frank
As a kid, Christopher Hardman wanted to be a firefighter when he grew up — and he did just that. Fast forward to now, and he’s the COO of a multi-state medical air transport company with a host of professional degrees under his belt. He’ll add to it a Doctorate of Nursing Practice (DNP) degree in Healthcare Systems, Leadership, and Policy from Yale School of Nursing. The program focuses on preparing students as visionary scholars and sophisticated thought leaders while expanding their business acumen, organizational expertise and policy influence.
Hardman’s journey from firefighter to healthcare executive began while he was training to be a paramedic, a requirement for a firefighting career in his home state of Ohio. He gained broad experience in 911 services, inter-facility transport, and hospital-based care. One of those roles eventually led him to fly with MedFlight, where he spent seven years as a flight paramedic.
“When you’re on a flight team, the medic and the nurse have the same responsibilities and competencies,” says Hardman. “It’s a really broad scope of practice.” The experience inspired Hardman to further his education and pursue a nursing degree.
He earned his RN degree and later his BSN, all while continuing to fly full-time. Along the way, he says, he took on several leadership roles and became increasingly interested in the administrative side of healthcare. He joined PHI Air Medical as a business operations manager in 2015. After being promoted to regional director and then vice president, he became Chief Operating Officer of the company in January while completing his doctorate at YSN. Hardman also completed an executive MBA in 2018 and an MSN in 2021.
As part of the Systems Leadership curriculum, students identify a system problem and apply evidence to develop, implement, and evaluate a macro level solution. Hardman’s DNP project, “Empowering Emerging Air Medical Leaders through a Novel Professional Development Program: Adapting National Nursing and Healthcare Management Competencies to a Multi-state Air Medical Enterprise,” addressed what he sees as a persistent problem in the air medical industry: clinicians being promoted to leadership roles without adequate training.
“From my perspective, there hasn’t been a large emphasis or value placed on education,” Hardman says. “In this industry, we take really good clinicians and decide to promote them to leaders because they’re good clinicians. Oftentimes, they have little to no leadership experience or training.”
Hardman developed a structured onboarding and professional development program for emerging leaders at PHI — those with less than two years of experience in frontline supervisory roles. The curriculum drew on the American Organization for Nursing Leadership’s (AONL) nurse manager competencies and included topics such as emotional intelligence, air medical finance, business analytics, strategic management, and understanding regulatory and accrediting bodies.
“Chris’s project is unique as an interdisciplinary, competency-based management development model. While anchored in AONL nurse manager competencies, it is aligned with national leadership competencies recognized by the more broadly focused Health Care Leadership Alliance,” says Mary Ann Camilleri, JD, RN, FACHE, FAAN, FNYAM, Program Director and DNP Project Advisor. “Chris demonstrated a strong return on investment for this cost-effective, multi-state virtual and in-person approach. Inspired to address the development needs in the air-medical context, it is easily translated throughout the healthcare system.”
Going forward, Hardman plans to continue scaling the manager professional development program through progressive annual iterations and mentors. “The goal is to provide structure around the onboarding of emerging leaders, so they have the tools to be successful,’ he says.
Christopher Hardman, MBA, MSN, RN, NEA-BC, NRP, CMTE, FACHE, is one of 19 graduates of YSN’s Systems Leadership DNP program who will celebrate their accomplishments at this year’s commencement exercises.