Education and experience of Army flight medics in Iraq and Afghanistan.

OBJECTIVE: Adequate training levels and an appropriate amount of continuing education for Army flight medics (AFM) is a highly contested topic. We sought to obtain a cross-section of the education, experience, and time spent by flight medics on patient care before and in between deployments. We also sought the opinions of AFM regarding training, transport staffing, and medical oversight.

METHODS: This was a prospective survey study administered electronically via SurveyMonkey.com to AFM deployed or recently deployed. This study was conducted under a protocol reviewed and approved by the U.S. Army Medical Research and Materiel Command Institutional Review Board, and in accordance with the approved protocol.

RESULTS: Of the 53 AFM that participated, 57% stated they spend less than 10 h/mo on patient care and 28% reported getting no exposure to patients at all when not deployed. A majority (85%) felt that training to the paramedic level was optimal for their mission. Regarding time between deployments, 77% disagreed that they spent enough time on patient care and 96% agreed they would benefit from medical rotations. Almost half agreed they had been in situations while deployed they felt unprepared for medically.

DISCUSSION: Results from this study seem to indicate AFM feel their training and patient contact is too limited prior to and in between deployments. These findings support a need for the reassessment of initial and ongoing training standards for AFM in order to best take care of our sick and wounded service members.