Aviation physiology focuses on how flying impacts the physical and mental health of the pilots, flight crew and passengers. It’s an area of health science in which flight nurses develop expertise because their “work environment” is thousands of feet in the air.
Aviation physiology provides a framework for dealing with how air travel impacts human beings, according to the Federal Aviation Administration. The FAA Facts provided in a guidebook acknowledges that “every human is physiologically different and can react differently in any given situation.”
However, medical professionals have developed strategies for dealing with anxiety, stress and other health issues that people may experience, including those involved with commercial flight medical transportation and assisted flight travel.
The Basics of
Aviation Physiology
Humans can adapt to a
remarkable number of different environments. For exploring the ocean depths to
traveling into space, humans can adjust to changes in external temperature,
barometric pressure variations, motion in space and changes in relation to
gravity.
However, these changes can have an impact. When
it comes to flight, the FAA points out three major areas where environmental
changes have the biggest impact:
Marked changes in barometric pressure
Considerable variation in temperature
Movement at high speed in three dimensions
Of course, human beings cannot handle all these
changes on their own. But through “foresight, ingenuity and effort,” as the FAA
describes it, humans have developed tools to help them deal with these changes,
such as pressurized flight cabins and temperature control.
Flight nurses that
travel with patients are experts in the following areas, which the FAA lists as
being some of the major areas of aviation physiological impact.
Pressure
As you move above sea
level and ascend into the sky, the air becomes less dense and there is
atmospheric pressure. Gas may expand as molecules travel farther apart – which
is why you might experience “trapped gas” issues in the ear canal or sinuses.
Artificial pressurization deals with most of these issues, but during ascent
people may feel the drop in pressure more acutely.
Respiratory and
Circulation
The human body has
amazingly simple, efficient respiratory and circulatory systems. The drop in
pressure, however, can impact them, potentially causing dizziness, headaches,
shortness of brief or fatigue. Again, this is something that cabin
pressurization helps to solve. However, a flight nurse traveling with a patient
is aware of these potential issues and prepared to deal with them if needed.
Hypoxia
A very dangerous
condition in which the oxygen supply to the lungs or other important organs is
inhibited. This is why a plane offers oxygen masks in case of sudden drops in
pressure or changes in altitude. Nurses also will carry oxygen for certain
patients and administer it, as needed, if signs of hypoxia occur.
Hyperventilation
This happens with people on the ground, but also is something to watch for while in flight. It simply means breathing at a fast, shallow rate that could inhibit the flow of oxygen through the body. This is sometimes brought on by anxiety or fear, which causes breathing to be controlled by emotions rather than by chemicals in the body. It can lead to a drop in carbon dioxide levels, which is dangerous if it continues for too long. Symptoms include dizziness, a tingling sensation, blurry vision and twitching muscles. These are just some of the issues that those with expertise in aviation physiology know how to handle during commercial flight medical transportation. It’s also the reason why an increasing number of people are turning to flight nurses to travel with them for non-emergency medical transport – allowing them to relax, knowing they have an expert in aviation physiology sitting beside them.
People use a long distance ambulance to transport themselves or a loved one in non-emergency situations. This medical transportation option ensures patients travel safely by either ground-based transport or commercial air travel.
The main goal in using a long distance ambulance and non-emergency medical transport is to ensure the patient has medical attention during their journey and arrives safely at their destination.
Often, those being transferred are seniors traveling to or from an assisted living facility, cancer treatment center, nursing home or home healthcare facility. They may also have been discharged in stable condition from a top US hospital and simply need to return home.
Using non-emergency medical transport (NEMT) is a popular medical transportation option. While it can involve the use of a long distance ambulance, it often involves commercial airline travel, accompanied by an experienced flight nurse.
A trip is generally considered to be long distance if it is more than 200 miles. As the nation’s population ages, there are an increasing number of non-ambulatory patients who require non-emergency transportation.
People use medical transportation for a variety
of reasons. They include:
Senior travelers taking a vacation or making a trip to see family
Those injured while on vacation who are coming back home
Patients transferring from one medical facility to another
Travelers with a disability or chronic condition that impedes movement
Seniors who are moving to a new area
Frequent medical conditions for NEMT patients include; Alzheimer’s, cancer, dementia, stabilized bone fractures, post-operative patients and those who are wheelchair-bound.
Those are just some of the scenarios that have made NEMT and long distance ambulances a more popular medical transport option in recent years.
NEMT companies such as Flying Angels can book a
flight for patients, coordinate with the airlines and airports along the route,
handle international flights and provide an experienced RN as a flight nurse.
That level of service makes air transportation a
great choice for many people. Transportation on a commercial airline also means
patients reach their destination faster than if they use ground transportation.
Even in a non-emergency situation, this is what most patients prefer.
Using a commercial flight with a nurse is also far less expensive than using an air ambulance, which is the most expensive transportation option. Whatever method you choose, it’s important to know that patients have options when it comes to medical transportation. With the modern services available, patients can quickly and safely reach their destination while enjoying the most comfortable situation possible.
It’s important to make air travel for seniors as safe and as comfortable as possible. Some of the best tips include requesting a wheelchair, asking for special screening procedures, carrying all-important medications on the plane, protecting against checkpoint theft and getting the best available seats for seniors.
All these tips make air travel for seniors that much better. The key for seniors is to plan ahead or hire a non-emergency medical transport company that handles these issues. A flight nurse who specializes in patient advocacy can assist passengers in making all the below senior air travel arrangements.
Request a Wheelchair
For some seniors, it’s difficult to walk from the curb to the gate. Many seniors experience problems with their hips and feet. They may also have respiratory issues that hinder the ability to walk very far. This is one of the most common issues in air travel for seniors. All airports provide wheelchairs for those who request them, which can be done in advance or when you arrive. You may also bring your own wheelchair, which airline employees will store during the flight.
Ask For Special Screening Procedures
The federal Transportation Safety Agency (TSA), which oversees airport security in the U.S., offers special security check procedures for those older than 75 or traveling with a disability. Please note that if you have a wearable medical device or use medical equipment (such as a respirator), the TSA will apply extra screening tests, such as testing for traces of explosives. Another smart move is to register with TSA Pre-Check. Also, always strive to arrive early.
Carry All Important Medications On The Plane
Like passengers of all ages, seniors should never put important medicine into checked luggage. That can become a serious issue if the luggage is lost. Seniors should place medications in a handbag or whatever is the most comfortable for them to carry. Make sure it is a size that can slide under the seat in front of you. That way, you can handle it yourself and not need help putting the bag in an overhead bin.
Protect Against Checkpoint Theft
This
is another issue that applies to everyone. However, thieves may see seniors as
easier victims. The important issue here is to maintain eye contact with your
items as much as possible, or have someone there that can do it for you. For
example, try to go through security at the same time your bags go through. The
longer your items sit on the other end of the baggage belt with no one watching
them, the easier it is for a thief to take something from them.
Best Available Seats For Seniors
Most seniors prefer getting seated at or near the front of the plane, which provides more legroom and a shorter walk to the restroom. This is something to mention when buying the tickets. A flight coordinator also can arrange this with the airlines by contacting them in advance. Senior air travel is an important issue as the population of the country ages and more people want to travel. It’s important to know you are not alone and that support is available to make air travel for seniors something to enjoy, not dread.
The United States has excellent hospitals across the country, many of them affiliated with top universities. Picking the best is a difficult task, but among the top 10 hospitals are certainly the Mayo Clinic, Massachusetts General Hospital, Johns Hopkins Hospital, the Cleveland Clinic, and New York-Presbyterian Hospital.
Top 10 Hospitals
Each of the top 10 hospitals has its own unique accomplishments, areas of focus and affiliations. The following looks at the best US hospitals, taken from rankings by U.S. News and World Report and Newsweek.
Mayo Clinic
Rochester, Minnesota
The Mayo Clinic is a general medical and surgical facility. The hospital includes one of the world’s largest departments of endocrinology, which treats diabetes. The Mayo Clinic is also known for its Healthy Living Program that advocates exercise, nutrition and mind-body practice. The clinic has hospitals in Jacksonville, Florida, and Scottsdale, Arizona, and the Mayo Clinic Health System has hospitals in Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Iowa.
Massachusetts
General Hospital
Boston, Massachusetts
Massachusetts General Hospital is a teaching hospital for Harvard University Medical School. It also is a general medical and surgical facility. Massachusetts General is well-known for its treatments in a number of areas, including cancer, neurological issues, heart disease, orthopedics, transplantation, urologic diseases, and trauma care.
Johns Hopkins
Hospital
Baltimore, Maryland
Johns Hopkins Hospital is the teaching hospital
for the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. It is one of five
hospitals that are part of the Johns Hopkins system, including Johns Hopkins
All Children’s Hospital in St. Petersburg, Florida.
Cleveland Clinic
Cleveland, Ohio
The Cleveland Clinic includes the Taussig Cancer
Institute, Global Cardiovascular Innovation Center, Cole Eye Institute,
Cleveland Clinic Children’s and Pediatric Institute, and the Centers for
Geriatric and Diabetes Care. There are 11 hospitals and 18 health centers that
are part of the Cleveland Clinic Health System.
New
York-Presbyterian Hospital
New York City, New York
The New York-Presbyterian Hospital was created
after a merger between New York Hospital and The Presbyterian Hospital in 1998.
It is a teaching hospital affiliated with Columbia University’s Vagelos College
of Physicians and Surgeons and the Weill Cornell Medical College. Among its
notable achievements is the development, by Dr. George Papanicolaou, of the Pap
smear test for cervical cancer. The Presbyterian Hospital also was the first to
perform pediatric heart transplant surgery, done in collaboration with Columbia
University Medical Center.
UCLA Medical Center
Los Angeles, California
UCLA Medical Center is a teaching hospital for the University of California – Los Angeles. It is part of a network of hospitals throughout Southern California that includes Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center; UCLA Medical Center, Santa Monica; UCLA Mattel Children’s Hospital; and the Stewart and Lynda Resnick Neuropsychiatric Hospital at UCLA. The UCLA Medical Center is known for many programs, including the Risk Factor Obesity program that supports patients with guidance on limiting calories, physical activity, and behavior modification.
UCSF Medical Center
San Francisco, California
The UCSF Medical Center is a teaching hospital with three main campuses: the UCSF Helen Diller Medical Center at Parnassus Heights; the UCSF Medical Center at Mount Zion and the UCSF Medical Center at Mission Bay. Among other notable facilities, the Mount Zion campus has the UCSF Osher Center for Integrative Medicine that combines modern medicine with globally-minded healing practices.
Cedars-Sinai
Medical Center
Los Angeles, California
Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles is part of a healthcare system that includes 40 locations. The medical center system has many notable facilities. For example, the Kerlan-Jobe Institute, Cedars-Sinai provides official team orthopedists for three Los Angeles’ sports teams – the Clippers, Dodgers, and Rams. Doctors at Smidt Heart Institute, Cedars-Sinai have performed more of two kinds of valve procedures – percutaneous mitral valve repairs and aortic valve replacements – than anywhere else in the U.S.
NYU Langone
Hospitals
New York City, New York
The main hospital in the NYU Langone Hospitals system is Tisch Hospital, which is the teaching hospital for the NYU School of Medicine. Other campuses in Manhattan include Rusk Rehabilitation, NYU Langone Orthopedic Hospital and Hassenfeld Children’s Hospital at NYU Langone. Notable graduates of the NYU School of Medicine include Dr. Jonas Salk and Dr. Albert Sabin, who developed the polio vaccine.
Northwestern
Memorial Hospital
Chicago, Illinois
Northwestern Memorial Hospital is the teaching hospital for Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine. The Bluhm Cardiovascular Institute is among the most notable parts of the hospital system. Northwestern Memorial is also known for performing the first trans myocardial laser revascularization, an alternative heart procedure that is less invasive than surgery or angioplasty.
While these are generally considered the top 10 hospitals in the country, there are many more that provide excellent healthcare services, including surgical procedures and cutting-edge treatment plans.
I took issue in my previous post with those who live by some fixed truths they are unwilling to have questioned. The idea of climate change has certainly not simply been invented but, so far as I know, neither has it been 100 percent proven. To claim one or the other is an example of what I mean by a fixed truth or a dogma.
Similarly, liberal education is not about spreading around fixed truths like these two. It doesn’t matter if the so-called truth in question is considered politically liberal or politically conservative because being politically liberal is a lot different from being liberally educated.
Liberal Education
Liberally educated people do not go around asserting either that climate change is 100 percent proven or that it is a hoax, that the nation’s borders ought to be entirely open or entirely closed. These are dogmas that might go viral for a day or two but finally get us nowhere.
The only sensible question is what the bulk of the evidence has suggested and for that, we need to listen to what the best-informed people have concluded. That is the basis on which we make up our minds with due regard for, and fairness to, such opposition as they may have encountered. The liberally educated do not look for truth in shouting matches. It exists not inside but outside ourselves–that is, in the evidence, and must be patiently discovered there.
The liberally educated also attend to the difference between our political and our cultural differences. I was recently told about a church-going Alabama woman who, when she heard some animal invade her cherished bird’s nest, said that she headed straight to her closet to fetch her thirty-eight. Alabama’s gun laws are among the least restrictive in the nation and yet, if this woman were asked to support legislation limiting the access of Alabama children to firearms, I imagine she might do so. In other words, she could think with the culture of her state in rejecting gun control overall, but make an exception in this particular political case.
Similarly, hunting is a much-loved hobby for several of my neighbors in upstate Pennsylvania. But I’m pretty sure some of them agree with the recent Pennsylvania law that requires those convicted of domestic violence to hand over their guns within 24 hours instead of keeping them for 60 days as used to be the case. The gun culture is one thing, gun control politics is another, and the two don’t necessarily coincide.
Inclusion and Diversity
Like so many other colleges these days, the
one I taught at until my retirement several years ago emphasizes its commitment
to inclusion and diversity. I agreed with that commitment. I also agree that
proven student behavior like scratching anti-Semitic phrases on blackboards or
shouting out the N-word should be punished with penalties like suspension. But
the terms “inclusion and diversity” have become so exhaustively repeated on
campuses, and often preached rather than explained, that they strike some
students still ignorant of history as lacking in enforceable meaning. That may
be one reason why blatant cases of discrimination persist on campuses.
I remember admiring a former student of mine from Texas. Basing a paper she wrote on the practical experience of her and her family, she had the nerve to question the universal and automatic correctness of “inclusion and diversity.” She had been brought up in a San Antonio school district where social service taxes, which included school taxes, had risen so high that her family, already burdened with huge college expenses, had seriously to consider moving elsewhere. Their politically liberal neighbors insisted that the hidden cause of the family’s discontent was not financial distress, but an objection to the nearby overflow of Mexican immigrants, many illegal, for whom newer and larger schools had to be built.
My student had clearly been troubled by this accusation of prejudice, which was repeated by her classmates in our discussion of her paper. The evidence she gave for her argument, however, had to do not with the local increase in Mexican immigrants, whom she described with unfailing respect, but with the notably excessive tax increase on hard-pressed neighborhood families. Her paper far outclassed those of the many other students who relied on tiring invocations of the words “inclusion and diversity,” presumably on the assumption that my grade would indicate how profoundly I would bow before them.
Discovered Evidence vs Righteous Insult
In short, my Texas student demonstrated her regard for discovered evidence as opposed to righteous insult, and her good grade reflected that. The students in our class who, along with some of her family’s San Antonio neighbors immediately accused her of prejudice, were preachers of liberal dogma, perhaps more accurately described as liberal cruelty. Ignoring local culture and particular circumstances, these dogmatic, “fixed truth” liberals are the opposites of the extreme political conservatives whose ahistorical dream of restored American greatness hints strongly of white supremacy.
Will We Remain Divided?
Whether the shouting matches between these two groups will remain the norm of American discourse, and the symptom of a divided culture that it now is, remains to be seen. Meanwhile, its fury demonstrates the value of the quieter, more reasoned approach to our problems characteristic of a “liberal” education, the kind that now seems pretty close to defunct.
This blog article was written by Flying Angels Corporate Ethicist Ronald Wendling. In addition to his posts here, his thoughts can be found on his own blog page Keeping up with Ron.
National Family Caregiver Month in November offers the family and friends of caregivers a great opportunity. Every day caregivers work hard to make sure a family member is healthy and safe. Now is the time to appreciate caregivers by showing them how much they are loved.
Appreciate Caregivers
Chances are, there is someone among your friends or in your family who is a caregiver. The Pew Research Center estimates there are 40.4 million caregivers in the United States. Most are unpaid. They are caring for adults who are 65 or older, and nine out of 10 are caring for an aging relative.
Many face a demanding schedule, routine physical tasks that can take a toll on their health, and even stress about finances. In some cases, being a caregiver can seem like a thankless job. Family Caregiver Month offers you the chance to show caregivers how much everyone appreciates what they do. If you are looking for ideas, consider the following.
Gift Ideas
There are many ways to appreciate caregivers with gifts. When choosing a gift, think about something that offers the caregiver some “down time” away from the work they do every day. Some ideas include:
Many of those who work as caregivers rarely have the time to practice self-care. Because of their self-sacrificing instincts, they tend to do for others and think of themselves last. When searching for a gift, thinking about something that shows how you appreciate caregivers by giving them time to do something they love to do. This can range from giving them time to take a long, relaxing bath to purchasing a gift card to their favorite manicurist.
Acts of Kindness
One of the best things you can do for Family Caregiver Month is simply to ask a caregiver what you can do to help. Many caregivers will never ask for help on their own. Take the time to sit down with them and find out what they need from you. Another act of kindness is to simply listen – give them a sympathetic ear. Sometimes, just being able to voice your problems to a trusted friend or family member can make you feel immediately better.
Hire Help
If you and a circle of
friends or family members can afford it, hiring at-home help can have a huge
impact on the lives of caregivers. Even someone who comes by once or twice a
week to help with issues such as laundry or house cleaning can make a
significant difference.
Chip In For A Week
If you want to show caregiver appreciation, consider gathering together all your friends and/or family members and coming up with a schedule to handle all the chores for a week or more. Take care of issues such as sweeping, vacuuming, washing the dishes and doing the laundry. If you can make this something you do regularly, that’s even better. Family Caregiver Month offers a wonderful opportunity to appreciate caregivers and all the hard work they do. Don’t let the month get away without showing caregivers how much you care about them.
