Flight Nursing

INTRODUCTION: Despite their role being historically overlooked, environmental surfaces have been shown to play a key role in the transmission of pathogens causative of healthcare-associated infections (HCAI). To guide infection prevention and control (IPC) interventions and inform clinical risk assessments, more needs to be known about microbial surface bioburden. AIMS: To identify the trends in culturable bacterial contamination across communal touch sites over time in a hospital setting...

The air medical transport industry places a high value on developing and maintaining a culture of safety due to the higher risk nature of its operations. The dynamic nature of response and transport, inherent risks involved with flight, lack of supporting resources, weather conditions, and austere nature of the transport environment are all factors that highlight the need for enhanced safety. As such, the air medical transport industry has developed a robust and unique approach to provider and patient safety involving many tactics not otherwise used in other areas of health care...

Air medical providers are responsible for the care of an incredibly diverse patient population. When it is time to transport a patient, providers must be prepared for complex situations, each requiring different skills, medications, and critical thinking. Scene flights will have providers landing and providing care in the prehospital setting where an interfacility transport requires the patient to be taken from one hospital to another. Specialty flights require special equipment, personnel, and aircraft preparedness to be completed...

Air medical transport of critically ill and injured patients began during World War II. Now air transport has become an integral part of health care, nationally and internationally. With the development of portable medical equipment critical care has extended beyond the hospital by bringing critical care to the scene or to rural hospitals. Air medical programs transport critically ill and injured patients by helicopter or airplane while continuously providing critical care enroute. These transports are interfacility from accident scenes, disaster areas, and remote locations where the patient is transported to a tertiary care center so that definitive care will be provided...

In Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, the skies have become a battleground against time in a world where every second counts. Since its inception in 1978, a revolution has occurred in emergency medical services, with LifeFlight Helicopters soaring to new heights in emergency treatment and transport. This article will explore the transformation of helicopter emergency medical services through the decades, where every rotor blade spins with a mission to save lives and rewrite the rules of survival. Allegheny Health Network's LifeFlight is a rotor-wing (helicopter) aeromedical transport service that provides rapid emergent transport for critically ill and injured persons...

Vertical flight was sought-after by scientists for centuries, finding early beginnings in children's toys and slowly developing into the modern helicopter. For centuries, true success was elusive, and many machines failed to achieve safe, controlled flight. Despite slow progress, vertical flight enthusiasts were unrelenting and continued trialing new concepts until one finally rose above the rest. As technology advanced, the critical role of helicopters in medical evacuation became apparent. Throughout recent history, continuous progress in vertical flight technology has led to widespread and multifaceted use of helicopters in civilian and military medical operations...

Newly arriving asylum seekers in Germany mostly live in large reception centres, depending on professionals in most aspects of their daily lives. The legal basis for the provision of goods and services allows for discretionary decisions. Given the potential impact of social categorisation on professionals' decisions, and ultimately access to health and social services, we explore the categories used by professionals. We ask of what nature these categorisations are, and weather they align with the public discourse on forced migration...

AUDIENCE AND TYPE OF CURRICULUM: Audience and type of curriculum: This hybrid, asynchronous curriculum is designed for prehospital clinician colleagues, including but not limited to emergency medical technicians (EMT), advanced EMTs (AEMT), EMT-paramedics (EMT-P), critical care EMT-Ps (CCEMTP), critical care transport nurses (CCTN), and certified flight registered nurses (CFRN) to learn and practice ultrasound fundamentals in the setting of a standardized extended focused assessment with sonography in trauma (E-FAST) exam...

BACKGROUND: The frequency and type of prehospital blood product delivery across Australia and Aotearoa-New Zealand is unknown. This study aims to describe transfusion practice across different services in the two nations, as well as identifying potential barriers to the carriage of blood products. METHODOLOGY: Prehospital and retrieval medicine services operating teams of doctors, specialist paramedics, and/or flight nurses out of specialty bases across Australia and Aotearoa-New Zealand were sent a standardized questionnaire regarding their base characteristics and their current blood transfusion practice...

OBJECTIVES: Matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization time of flight (MALDI-TOF) has revolutionized clinical microbiology laboratories, enabling the identification of microorganisms in minutes. Although this advancement has significantly enhanced patient care by providing early diagnosis, the use of MALDI-TOF for routine detection of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) remains an ongoing area of research. The purpose of this scoping review was to identify and summarize the existing literature on MALDI-TOF-based methodologies for detecting AMR...

OBJECTIVE: Intubation is a vital skill performed by flight nurses and paramedics. Before flight training, nurses do not routinely intubate and must be trained in proper techniques. Flight paramedics universally train in intubation before flight training and are the primary managers of in-flight airways. The aim of this study was to determine if a difference exists in intubation attempts and success rates between flight nurses and flight paramedics. METHODS: A 5-year retrospective chart review was performed from a regional helicopter emergency medical service...

Background and Purpose: Brain drain, also known as "human capital flight," refers to the migration of employees such as nurses from developing countries to wealthier countries for better living conditions. There is a dearth of literature internationally about the determinants and factors influencing nurses' brain drain using a standardized instrument. This study aimed to assess the psychometric properties of the brain drain questionnaire (BDQ). Methods: This methodological study was conducted with 325 Egyptian nurses who were recruited to answer the BDQ...

Dr. Marilyn A. Ray, nurse scholar and retired United States Air Force (USAF) veteran and former flight nurse, began her nursing scholarship in Canada. She was influenced by the experiences and interprofessional scholarly ideas that she encountered along her career trajectory. Her early love of the air and space led her to the United States Air Force Nurse Corps, where she served as a flight nurse during the Vietnam war era, followed by leadership positions in nursing education, administration, practice, and research...

BACKGROUND: Prehospital blood transfusion has been widely practiced in the military and is drawing renewed scrutiny after many years of civilian use. OBJECTIVE: The objective of this article is to quantify the benefit derived from prehospital transfusion of blood products. METHODS: Deidentified data were extracted retrospectively from the flight records of a critical care transportation program between April 2018 and January 2020. Patients who were transported before a prehospital blood transfusion protocol were compared with patients after initiation of the blood transfusion protocol...

INTRODUCTION: A broad range of pathophysiologic conditions can lead to cardiopulmonary arrest in children. Some of these children suffer from refractory cardiac arrest, not responding to basic and advanced life support. Extracorporeal-Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (E-CPR) might be a life-saving option for this group. Currently this therapy is only performed in-hospital, often necessitating long transport times, thereby negatively impacting eligibility and chances of survival. We present the first two cases of prehospital E-CPR in children performed by regular Helicopter Emergency Medical Services (HEMS)...

BACKGROUND: Aeromedical evacuation provides critical care during long-distance transport of injured victims between medical facilities. Often, these victims sustain muscle trauma related to mechanical insults, such as crush. Understanding the effects of flight on injured muscle is important because the aircraft cabin represents an external environment with mild hypoxia-the cabin's altitude is 2,438 m instead of sea level. Because mild hypobaric hypoxia can alter gene expression in normal muscle and affect recovery patterns, it is beneficial to examine whether this type of hypoxia may also alter injury-related genes...

In cases of critical injury or illness abroad, fixed-wing air ambulance aircraft is employed to repatriate children to their home country. Air ambulance aircraft also transport children to foreign countries for treatment not locally available and newborns back home that have been born prematurely abroad. In this retrospective observational study, we investigated demographics, feasibility, and safety and outcomes of long-distance and international aeromedical transport of neonates and children. The study included 167 pediatric patients, 56 of those preterm neonates...

INTRODUCTION: Air medical transport during the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic was essential for transferring critically ill patients. This study aimed to comparatively analyze air-transported patients with and without coronavirus disease 2019 according to their clinical condition and complications that occurred during the flight. METHODS: This was a retrospective cohort study that analyzed the digital records of adult patients transported by fixed-wing aircraft from the interior of the state of Amazonas to the state capital Manaus, Brazil, from June 2019 to May 2021...

OBJECTIVES: The use of directed observers in high-fidelity simulation education is increasingly common. While evidence suggests similar educational outcomes for directed observers compared to active participants in technical skills, it remains uncertain if this benefit also exists for senior clinicians, especially in mental workload. We sought to compare the workload between active participants and directed observers using an objective measure. METHODS: We performed a prospective, repeated-measures observational study during the New South Wales Ambulance Aeromedical Operations induction training from 2019 to 2020...

BACKGROUND: Neurogenic shock is a life-threatening emergency associated with spinal cord injuries. Early cervical spine immobilization to reduce the risk of neurogenic shock is imperative. In addition, early recognition and treatment of neurogenic shock are essential to prevent hypoperfusion-related injuries and death. CASE PRESENTATION: This case outlines a 65-year-old male who experienced a cervical spine fracture after a motorcycle crash. The patient received stabilizing treatment by a flight crew consisting of both a registered nurse and paramedic...