Photo By Master Sgt. Diana Ferree | Senior Airman Kimber Rogers, a medical technician at the 911th Aeromedical Evacuation...... read more read more
Medical scenarios create high stress situations for Air Force personnel tending to patients. On top of that, aeromedical evacuation members have to carry out their tasks with the added pressure of being in the air.
“We also don’t have the ability in an emergency to just bring people in from the outside because we’re in an enclosed metal tube, thousands and thousands of feet in the sky,” explained Capt. Joe Bowser, a flight nurse at the 911th Aeromedical Evacuation Squadron. “So it really does force you to think differently than when you are on the ground.”
Medics from the 911th AES participated in an off-station training exercise to Colorado Springs, Colorado on Oct. 20-22, 2023. They trained to provide en route medical care to patients as they transfer them to or between medical care facilities.
As Reserve Citizen Airmen, many members of the 911th AES are medics and nurses in their civilian jobs.
“You’re still being a nurse, you're still treating those problems, but you have to adjust them for all the stressors of flight – barometric pressure, low humidity, limited power, vibrations – the scenarios we do in our civilian job we have to do in the air.” Bowser said.
In order to be prepared for whatever scenario can arise, the 911th AES has multiple recurring training sessions.
“We never want to deploy and have a member experience something for the first time,” said Bowser. “We would rather them have the training here, so they can do it here first.”
These trainings include respiratory, neurological, pediatric scenarios and more. The frequent training sessions allow AE members to feel confident in real world situations.
Concerning training missions Senior Airman Kimber Rogers said, “Make the mistakes here and ask the questions.”
Rogers was the charge medical technician during a flight on their OST to Colorado Springs.
As the charge medical technician, she had to coordinate where her team was going to set up simulated patients, assign duties to the AE crew (for example, who will set up electrical and oxygen for the patients), and she also had to communicate with the loadmasters and pilots to ensure a smooth operation.
| Date Taken: | 11.13.2023 |
| Date Posted: | 11.13.2023 11:54 |
| Story ID: | 457712 |
| Location: | PITTSBURGH INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT AIR RESERVE STATION, PENNSYLVANIA, US |
| Hometown: | PITTSBURGH, PENNSYLVANIA, US |
| Web Views: | 115 |
| Downloads: | 1 |
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