Is there a nurse on the plane?

[Brian]

Nurses, have you ever had to handle or help out in an In-flight emergency? Please share your story and the details of what took place.

This blog post about doctors on planes was what sparked me to ask for nurses experiences.

There is a NY Times blog post called: Is There a Doctor on the Plane?

[ResearchRN]

Just a bit of nursing and flight history trivia...

Originally, young boys were hired to serve food, beverages, and comfort the passengers when they became airsick. Soon, however, it was suggested by Ellen Church, a registered nurse, that women -- specifically nurses -- could work as stewards. She felt that nurses would be best suited to care for passenger comfort (and illnesses), promote a female presence to demonstrate the safety of air travel, and to free up pilots for more important flight duties.

Boeing managers accepted her proposal and on May 15, 1930, eight women were hired for a three month trial. Thus began the position of "stewardess" the forerunner of the modern day flight attendant.

Eighty years ago on May 15, 1930, United's first stewardesses led by registered nurse Ellen Church took their initial flight on a Boeing 80A from Oakland/San Francisco to Chicago, making a 20-hour journey with 13 stops, 14 passengers and cruising at 125 mph.

Ellen Church (September 22, 1904 - August 22, 1965) was the first airline stewardess (flight attendant). Born in Cresco, Iowa, Church was a pilot and a nurse.

Boeing Air Transit (the predecessor to United Airlines) wouldn't hire her as a pilot, but did take her suggestion to hire nurses as stewardesses in order to calm passengers' fear of flight. She believed that a flight attendant would help convince people that flying is safe.

Church was hired in 1930 as head stewardess and was put in charge of hiring. During World War II Church served with the Army Nurse Corps as a flight nurse, earning an Air Medal.

She moved to Terre Haute, Indiana, where she became director of nursing at Union Hospital. In 1964, she married Leonard Briggs Marshall, president of the Terre Haute First National Bank.

In 1959, Cresco, Iowa built a new airfield and named it "Ellen Church Field"

[MassED, BSN, RN]

-- quick note from a golden oldie --

back when commercial aviation began, you had to be an rn in order to become a 'stewardess'. maybe they had the right idea? i'm not quite that old, but it's an important aspect of nursing history.

note to anyone who did not recognize flare's iconic picture of malcom mcdowell (in clockwork orange) undergoing adversive conditioning (while listening to beathoven).... shame on you for your pop cultural incompetency -- lol.

are you sure about this? i haven't researched it, but i just watched a documentary on pan-am and stewardesses in the hey day of flying, and their only requirements they listed were: under 120 pounds, single and under 25..

this was either on the history channel or biography.

and to the poster just previous to mine, this was one person (ellen church) that tried to change the industry, but apparently didn't become widespread... nice attempts, anyway, but glad it didn't stick to have all of those sexist definitions of being under 25, single, under 120 pounds... and let's not forget they were all very pretty. add the nursing qualification on top of all of those requirements and it would have truly changed flying. perhaps that's what they should require now and we'd get paid a heck of a lot more than in the hospital setting!

addendum - reading a bit on the history of flight stewardess' - originally they were required to be nurses in the 1930's but that was dropped in the 1940's.

[SpEdtacular, MSN, RN, EMT-P]

.....

[SpEdtacular, MSN, RN, EMT-P]

And this also has me fired up (from a doctor in the comments section):

"Of note, there was an NP on board in the first class section (same as the patient). Although she was useful, quite frankly, nurses and PA's were never trained to fully view symptoms from a pathological standpoint and hence their differential diagnosis could seriously harm or delay proper care. It's not their fault, just compare their training to the number of years of training that we had to go through. As a surgeon that makes 10 years before becoming boarded (not including college). Some may argue that decades of nursing experience counts. True. But those that continue to participate in academic/educational/CME enriching activities AFTER they graduate from training is the rare minority."

Umm we have continuing education, go to conferences, and read relevant journals as well. And an NP will spend anywhere from 6-10 years in school depending on whether they are an MSN or DNP. My goal is to be an NP, and I will have spend 6 years in school after graduating with my ADN, and will spend another 4 years at least to get my DNP.

Sounds like your typical arrogant surgeon, G-d's gift to medicine. Shame on us for not realizing all surgeons are expert pathophysiologists too.... It's a too bad he doesn't seem to know anything about the licensing of other healthcare professionals, or not being an ass. Maybe he can take some con ed?

As for treating and giving medications in flight, the article mentioned that the pilots are put in contact with a physician who would, from what I gathered, be the one to give/okay orders.

[rockclimber26]

Thank you to everyone for posting these experiences. I am currently preparing for nursing school and keep hearing a lot of negatives, but these stories are inspiring. These examples of being able to help others are the reason I want to be a nurse.

[MTRN13]

Am I the only one reading the comments on the doctor article and getting annoyed at all of doctors whining because they didn't get a free ticket or compensation? Yes it would be nice, but should not be expected.

Plus the added fact that if they receive some sort of compensation, the person is no longer protected by the good samartian law. It should be done because we made a commitment when we became a nurse. Plus I hope that if something ever happened to one of my family or friends that someone would be kind and be a good samaritian. I know I would if the oppurtunity arouse.

[Ruby Vee, BSN]

My husband (also an RN) and I were on a nonstop cross-country flight from a large east coast city to our home on the west coast. Prior to the flight, we'd been sitting in the waiting area and had noticed a pulmonologist we work with also waiting for the flight. Quite a coincidence.

DH and I had had a couple of drinks before boarding the flight and were napping in our seats when a flurry of activity in the row ahead of us woke us up. Two of the flight attendants were with a man sitting ahead of us (whom we'd noticed acting as if he were drunk or high while waiting for the plane to take off). The passanger reeked of body odor and vomit, was stumbling over his words and wasn't making a whole lot of sense.

There was an announcement asking if there was a doctor on the plane, and no one answered. We could see the pulmonologist six or seven rows ahead of us, trying to slink down in his seat and become invisible, and frankly we were doing the same. I was sleep deprived and had had two glasses of wine while waiting for our (delayed) flight to be called. I didn't want to take any responsibility when my judgement probably wasn't the best. Minutes passed, and the situation in front of us hadn't changed much. The passanger complained that he "was sick" and asked that the flight land so he could get off. Another announcement was made asking for a physician, and this time the pulmonologist's seatmate rose his hand and said "HE's a doctor."

With no choices left, the pulmonologist got up and made his way back to where the situation was escalating as the passanger, slurred speech and all, was continuing to demand that he be let off the plane. DH and I both pretended to be asleep while watching the scene from under partially closed eyelids.

In the end, the pulmonologist spent the entire overnight flight sitting next to a drunken passenger who reeked of BO listening to him complain about feeling sick, the voices in his head (overhead announcements), the government and the airline who were all, he said, out to screw him over. Everyone else got to sleep or just relax, but the poor doctor was "on duty" until the flight landed on the west coast and an ambulance came to take the guy away (over his strong and incoherent objections.) He told us later that the guy was just drunk, and then, when the alcohol wore off, hung over. No medical emergency. For this, all he got was the thanks of the flight crew and a miserable night. DH and I got to sleep some.

While I think it's great that some health care practitioners are willing (even eager) to respond to "medical emergencies" in flight, I'd rather be invisible. Talking it over later, DH and I agreed that if it were a life threatening emergency, and no one else responded we'd step up. But so far, every time we've been in a similar situation there's been someone either more qualified (the pulmonologist who insisted that we owed him a couple of drinks when we got to our destination -- not that we disagreed) or more eager to jump in. I sincerely hope it stays that way.

[EmergencyNrse]

Just last month on a flight back to Atlanta a man became short of breath, lightheaded and dizzy.

On early morning flights and evenings, especially where there are young children traveling the captain will sometimes lower the cabin pressure and make everything a more relaxed environment. Kids & babies won't cry and act out as much making everyone else on the flight miserable. Puts them to sleep.

So they asked if there were any medical personnel on-board. Got a brief Hx, gave some supplemental O2 and it relieved his symptoms. No emergency really. Nothing life-saving...

Frontier Air gave me a free voucher for movie or TV service for my next flight :w00t:

[jimkusters]

I don't know if this was posted before in this thread, but when flight stewardesses started (that's what they were originally called) they were actually required to be registered nurses. Obviously, this changed over time, but they did start out as RN's.

[BabyLady, BSN, RN]

Or if you are outside your state that you are licensed in?

A true, life or death emergency doesn't matter.

Airlines are Federally, not state regulated. Therefore, it is the Federal gov't that would have to bring you up on charges, if warranted.

However, I have never, ever heard of that happening just because of a "state of practice" issue.

Use critical thinking: Everyone on the plane is going somewhere else and in 10 minutes you can be in another state.

[BabyLady, BSN, RN]

Plus the added fact that if they receive some sort of compensation, the person is no longer protected by the good samartian law. It should be done because we made a commitment when we became a nurse. Plus I hope that if something ever happened to one of my family or friends that someone would be kind and be a good samaritian. I know I would if the oppurtunity arouse.

This depends on where you live.

There is a massive, legal difference between compensation after-the-fact and compensation before-the-fact.

Before-the-fact is when you agree to be someone's caregiver..there is an agreement, up-front, that you will be performing the care service for a fee.

After-the-fact is when you are volunteering your services, WITHOUT the ADVANCED expectation of pay, did not bill anyone, but someone insisted on rewarding you.

Not even close to the same situation.

[kakamegamama]

Not long ago I had the opportunity to assist with an in flight emergency. After everything was fine, the FA offered me anything I wanted to eat/drink as a "thank you". I refused (more interested in snoozing before I met my rambunctious grandkids :yelclap:). Didn't give it another thought except to hope that everything really did turn out okay for the person. A few weeks ago I received an officical "Thank you" for my help from the airline....along with some free miles....which added to what miles I already had helped me upgrade for my next trip to see my grandkids.

I have had some fellow nurses since then tell me that they usually "hide" and hope someone else is around. While I understand a hesitancy and some of the reasons for that hesitancy, it makes me sad that we live in such a society where helping automatically no longer seems to be the norm.........but, that may be another topic for another thread another time.....