Flight Nurses' Experiences With Interhospital Transportation of Critically Ill Patients

To explore flight nurses' experiences with interhospital transportation of critically ill patients in fixed-wing aircraft.

The study had a qualitative explorative and descriptive design.

Nine flight nurses working at five different air bases across Norway were interviewed. Systematic text condensation was used to analyse the data. The study was reported according to the COREQ checklist.

The data analysis resulted in three categories: Flight nurses being one step ahead when preparation for transporting patients in out-of-hospital environments, Flight nurses' strategies for effective and safe patient transport within the aircraft environment, and Flight nurses' need for a structured and organised handover of patients.

The flight nurses emphasised the need for extensive preparation prior to aeromedical transport to enhance patients' safety. The aircraft environment was a challenge that required them to be creative with the limited resources available and to have a well-functioning interprofessional teamwork.

Knowledge about flight nurses' experiences with interhospital transportations could provide a path to standardisation and inform strategies to enhance interprofessional teamwork. Such knowledge could also contribute to humanising nursing practice during the transportation of critical care patients.

There were no patient or public contributions.