Comparing Intubation Success Between Flight Nurses and Flight Paramedics in Helicopter Emergency Medical Services

Area of Science:

• Emergency Medicine
• Aviation Medicine
• Critical Care Transport

Background:

• Intubation is a crucial skill for flight nurses and paramedics.
• Flight nurses require specific training for intubation before flight missions.
• Flight paramedics are universally trained and primarily manage in-flight airways.

Purpose of the Study:

• To compare intubation attempts and success rates between flight nurses and flight paramedics.
• To evaluate the proficiency of different medical professionals in pre-hospital airway management.

Main Methods:

• Retrospective chart review of a regional helicopter emergency medical service over 5 years.
• Analysis of intubation attempts and success rates as primary outcomes.
• Comparison between flight nurses and flight paramedics.

Main Results:

• Paramedics performed 271 (88.9%) of 303 successful intubations.
• Nurses performed 32 (10.5%) of successful intubations.
• Paramedics had a higher success rate and fewer unsuccessful attempts compared to nurses.

Conclusions:

• Flight paramedics demonstrate superior performance in terms of intubation attempts and success rates.
• The findings underscore the importance of specialized training and experience in pre-hospital airway management.
• Further training protocols for flight nurses may be warranted to improve outcomes.