title: Air ambulance nurses as expert supplement to local emergency services.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Flight nurses in the Norwegian National Air Ambulance Service are specialist nurse anesthetists or intensive care nursing specialists. For air ambulance bases far from hospitals, these nurses present otherwise unavailable competencies. This study reports a 6-year experience with flight nurse participation in local emergencies beyond the transportation phase.
  
  
  METHODS
  The fixed-wing air ambulance base in Alta, Northern Norway (20,000 inhabitants), with 2 aircraft and 2 on-call teams is 150 km by road from the nearest hospital. We did a prospective registration of all emergency nonflight missions near the air ambulance base from January 1, 2005, to December 31, 2010.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The 217 completed missions corresponded to 3 missions per month, half during daytime. Twenty-three percent of patients were under age 18, injury rate was high (36%), 63% had potentially or manifest life-threatening conditions, and 11% died during treatment. One third of all missions (67/217) resulted in an air ambulance flight to the hospital.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Mission frequency did not significantly reduce flight availability, and precision in case selection for this special service was good. The use of flight nurses in the local community promotes equal access to advanced medical services for populations far from hospitals.
authors.affiliation: Anesthesia and Critical Care Research Group, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Tromsø, Tromsø, Norway; Department of Anesthesiology and Intensive Care Medicine, Finnmark Health Trust, Hammerfest Hospital, Norway; Air Ambulance Service of Alta, Finnmark Health Trust, Norway. Electronic address: torben@wisborg.net.
authors.forename: Torben
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Wisborg
authors.affiliation: Department of Anesthesiology and Intensive Care Medicine, Finnmark Health Trust, Hammerfest Hospital, Norway; Air Ambulance Service of Alta, Finnmark Health Trust, Norway.
authors.forename: Bjørn
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Bjerkan
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D017732:Air Ambulances / Q000458:organization & administration*; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D064648:Critical Care Nursing; D006297:Health Services Accessibility / Q000458:organization & administration*; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D009664:Norway; D009719:Nurse Anesthetists; D011446:Prospective Studies