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Better late than never, I guess:
mark g vojtko
Our program has recently relocated to a remote
base, approximately 30 minutes (over 1 hour during
rush hour) from our hospital.
My questions are:
What does your program do during "down time"
(i.e. planned and extended maintenance, aircraft
breakdowns, extended periods of bad weather, etc)?
During planned maintenance, if we are going to be back in service before the end of shift, we stay at our base. We all commute at least one hour, so it's not feasible to go home. We just hang out, get caught up on any duties if we have them, rest, watch tv, etc. If it is going to be for an extended time, we are usually contacted and have the choice to either a) stay home and take personal leave, which makes everyone mad or b) come in to the Trauma Center at the hospital we are affiliated with and work for as long as we want as a set of extra hands. If by chance, someone has to get caught up on a special project or something, that gets done.
Also, since we no longer have the luxury of dropping
into the ER or ICU's and "trolling for technologies",
how does your program keep up with continuing
education, clinical rotations, medical rounds and
conferences, etc.
Most of us work full or part-time for a fire dept., another hospital, another dept. in the hospital(Surgical ICU, Pediatric ICU, Medical ICU, Trauma Center) and so forth, so keeping skills fresh hasn't been much of a problem. We also fly between 50-90 pts. each month, so we have the chance to use everything we've got on a fairly regular basis. We can attend Grand Rounds at the hospital on our own, go to M & M's(Morbidity and Mortality) Rounds, go to conferences, etc. All of us are ACLS, PALS and PHTLS instructors as well, so we have an active Education Outreach program. We can also schedule time to go the the OR anytime we like if we haven't intubated in a while and feel a bit rusty, but so far, only the new people have done this, as the rest of us intubate very regularly. For surgical crichs, we use pig trachs. We also are req. to attend ATLS.We have a full-time mechanic on duty and one as a back-up and they both live in the town where our helo is based, so that works well for us.
Hope this helps!
Christy Foster, TraumaOne
Thanks in advance for your reply.
PLEASE RESPOND TO MY EMAIL ADDRESS
DIRECTLY, so the forum does not keep all clogged
up.
Mark Vojtko
Inova AirCare
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