Flight Medic Question ?

medicmommie

Forum Ride Along
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It's not all it's cracked up to be. Once you get over the OMG I'm in a helicopter thing it's kinda boring.

The reason they require the experience is because YOU NEED IT. A lot of it.
You need to know how you will respond/react in an emergency where there are just two of you. Now amplify that by being airborne in a metal tube that has 1million different parts all trying to go a different direction at the same time, with low frequency high acuity patients, and there is nobody who can help once you take off.
 

Akulahawk

EMT-P/ED RN
Community Leader
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It's not all it's cracked up to be. Once you get over the OMG I'm in a helicopter thing it's kinda boring.

The reason they require the experience is because YOU NEED IT. A lot of it.
You need to know how you will respond/react in an emergency where there are just two of you. Now amplify that by being airborne in a metal tube that has 1million different parts all trying to go a different direction at the same time, with low frequency high acuity patients, and there is nobody who can help once you take off.
I'm certainly NOT a flight-anything... what I highlighted should be obvious. When you work ground transport, you might see a very high acuity patient every once in a while but you'll see LOTS of situations where you just have to think your way through them. When you work flight, when you show up on scene, you'll be the expert at patient and scene management. You'll also see high acuity patients more often as you'll be going to those a lot as you'll be called in to be the expert in dealing with high acuity patients. Without seeing lots of patients and working lots of scenes, you won't have the knowledge/skill repertoire to know what to do at that time, even if it's a situation you haven't exactly seen before... because you have seen and worked through lots of situations that will just allow you to know.
 

CANMAN

Forum Asst. Chief
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It's not all it's cracked up to be. Once you get over the OMG I'm in a helicopter thing it's kinda boring.

The reason they require the experience is because YOU NEED IT. A lot of it.
You need to know how you will respond/react in an emergency where there are just two of you. Now amplify that by being airborne in a metal tube that has 1million different parts all trying to go a different direction at the same time, with low frequency high acuity patients, and there is nobody who can help once you take off.

Boring huh, are you actually in a flight role now? I mean everyone has their opinion, however I have left many cool jobs to work full-time flight and make crap money, and it has yet to become boring, ever. I love going to work every shift. You get to see and do stuff other providers, and even some physicians don't have the opportunity to do. Chest escharotomy, surgical airway, RSI on a regular basis, all skills I had limited access or exposure to in my boring field EMS job..... I do agree about the experience part. Frequently we are playing hospital rescue, from some extremely scary medical facilities where the healthy go to die. Although there might be a physician there the patients are frequently better off in those scenarios under our care. I am lucky enough to work in an extremely aggressive and evidence based system, doing trials and studies at times, and often having access to other treatment modalities which just aren't available in ground anything, or even most HEMS programs in my area. That stuff is pretty exciting to me!
 
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