What Lessons The ‘Miracle on the Hudson’ Holds for Healthcare Professionals

With some 70% of nurses and 30% of physicians reporting high stress in recent surveys, members of the healthcare team know a thing or two about work-related stress.^1,2

But how you approach those stressors can go a long way to easing them, as at least one person familiar with high-pressure situations can attest.

Speaking at the 2024 DPHARM Conference in Philadelphia, PA, Ambassador Captain Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger III, who was captain of the famed “Miracle on the Hudson” US Airways Flight 1549, spoke to a packed room of healthcare professionals and pharmaceutical leaders in attendance and discussed how being confident in what he knows, adapting it, and applying it helped him cope during a historic emergency.

It’s been a little more than 15 years since Capt. Sullenberger, who is an Air Force Academy graduate and former F-4 fighter pilot, became a household name for his heroics in emergency -landing a passenger plane on the Hudson River, after it collided with a herd of geese, saving all crew and 155 passengers on the flight.

Discussing his response to the emergency, Capt. Sullenberger reflected on his military background, noting that the lessons he learned then enabled him to work collaboratively with his then-first officer Jeffrey Skiles, his crew onboard the flight, and the passengers themselves.

Reflecting on his military training, Capt. Sullenberger explained that it reset his priorities, forced him to take into account other perspectives, and emphasized the need to work diligently and as a team, which were lessons that served him well on that historic day.

Fast-forwarding to the day of the Miracle on the Hudson, Capt. Sullenberger recalled his first thoughts after seeing the geese, hearing the terrifying booms as the engines came in contact with the geese, feeling vibrations from the engines, and then subsequently losing thrust.

“I thought ‘this can’t be happening’…followed immediately by ‘this doesn’t happen to me’” Capt. Sullenberger said, and then, his third thought “was the realization that, unlike all those other flights for so long, this flight probably would not end on a runway with the aircraft undamaged. And I was okay with that, as long as I could solve the problem.”

The first thing Capt. Sullenberger said he had to do to help solve the problem was “forcing calm” on his body’s immediate, physiological responses, including what he described as increasing blood pressure, narrowing of his field of vision, and pulse spiking by the second. He said all his training up until that point helped him compartmentalize and focus on the issue at hand.

After that, he analyzed what options the plane had for landing, given the rate of descent, and the Hudson River was an area that provided the longest, smoothest space available for an emergency landing.

He then described working in tandem with Skiles, letting the crew know, and alerting the passengers to brace for impact. Those reactions, that teamwork, and the subsequent landing have since inspired countless news articles, broadcasts, books, and even a Clint Eastwood-directed film.

So what lesson does Capt. Sullenberger’s experience hold for healthcare providers? In his own words, the confidence that he had that he “could take what I knew, adapt it, and apply it in a new way to solve even this emergency of a lifetime,” can be applied across the board, particularly in the stressful day-to-day life of the healthcare provider.

References

1. Rink LC, Oyesanya TO, Adair KC, et al. Stressors Among Healthcare Workers: A Summative Content Analysis. Glob Qual Nurs Res. 2023;30;10:23333936231161127.
2. Linzer M, Stillman M, Brown R, et al. Preliminary report: US physician stress during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic. Mayo Clinic Proc Innov Qual Outcomes. 2021; 5(1):127-136. 10.1016/j.mayocpiqo.2021.01.005.