Taking to the Air, Flight Nurse Urges New Training for Air Care
PhD Alum Andrew Reimer Outlines Goals for Practicing in Unstructured Environments
Posted 4/29/2011
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Andrew Reimer, PhD, RN and Shirley Moore, PhD, RN, FAAN |
The fastest way to the hospital may be a helicopter ride. The safest way is with a well-trained acute-care flight nurse with expertise in working in the cramped, noisy, vibrating and extreme hot and cold environment on board the aircraft.
To meet the growing demand to fly patients from an accident or disaster scene or from one hospital to another, flight nurse and nursing PhD alum Andrew Reimer '09 and Associate Dean for Research Shirley Moore call for new competencies and training for flight nurses in their article for the Journal of Advanced Nursing, “Flight Nursing Expertise: Towards a Middle-Range Theory.”
The researchers propose a theory that takes into consideration the unstructured medical environment and the need for fast thinking. Flight nurses must work in a cramped environment where it is hard to reach the patient, and Reimer found that they need different skills to access a patient's physical signs than those used in a hospital.
Source: Newswise
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