Flight Nurse to the Rescue: How the Sim Lab Prepares HALO Flight Medics

Keely Maxey is a seasoned emergency room nurse at CHRISTUS Spohn Hospital and a flight nurse with HALO Flight.

She uses life-saving skills on land and in the air to help patients when their lives hang in the balance.

Maxey and her HALO Flight colleagues utilize the Sim Lab to train with ultrasound technology. 

Honing Vital Skills

For those hard-to-reach veins, ultrasound-guided IVs are essential. The Sim Lab provides practice mannequins and equipment to perfect this technique, which are vital during high-stakes emergencies.

E-FAST scans allow HALO flight nurses to quickly examine internal bleeding, evaluate cardiac function, and evaluate organ damage.

This training isn't classroom theory; it translates directly to emergencies on the fly. Maxey recounts a recent flight where an ultrasound helped her evaluate a critically ill patient and make potentially life-altering treatment decisions.

I just did an ultrasound call that definitely made a difference for me in caring for the patient.

The Sim Lab also provides HALO nurses access to high-tech mannequins for simulations like "Mega Codes" and intubations, allowing Maxey and her colleagues to refresh skills essential for trauma calls.

Flight Nurses, ER Nurses: A Collaborative Community

Many HALO Flight crew members have worked as ER nurses at CHRISTUS Spohn at some point.

This connection fosters teamwork and understanding between flight nurses and hospital staff – a theme emphasized by Dr. Shani Italiya, an emergency room physician at CHRISTUS Spohn and Medical Director of the Simulation Lab.

He envisions the lab as a hub for building strong connections across the medical community.

Emergency room doctors regularly work alongside SWAT teams, HALO Flight crews, and the nursing staff.

This level of collaboration fosters strong ties across various medical disciplines and ultimately translates into better, more coordinated patient care, Dr. Italiya said.

HALO Flight's Advanced Training Needs

HALO Flight missions can include rarely encountered critical scenarios, HALO Flight Chief Flight Nurse Randy Endsley said.

Unlike routine emergency responses, certain scenarios occur rarely but pose high risks when they do. These are what we call low-frequency, high-risk situations, Endsley said.

To address this, they turn to simulation-based training.

The partnership with the sim lab is valuable in preparing for such scenarios, including pediatric emergencies and childbirth, which are rare yet critical aspects of their service.

You might go through your whole career and only assist in childbirth during a flight once or twice, Endsley said.

By simulating these high-stakes situations, HALO Flight nurses can practice and refine their skills without the immediate pressure and stakes of real-life emergencies.

The simulations are tailored to be as realistic as possible, preparing the team for everything from pediatric emergencies, which make up about 5 percent of their calls, to even rarer childbirth emergencies.

Simulations Provide Confidence

This rigorous training ensures that when faced with such challenges, the HALO Flight crew can confidently perform, backed by their simulated experiences.

This isn't about just ticking a box to meet training requirements, Endsley said. It's about ensuring that every member of our team can handle situations they might face, no matter how rare or complex it might be.

HALO Flight and CHRISTUS Spohn continue to strengthen their collaboration, emphasizing the role of the sim lab in enhancing emergency medical care and readiness across the board.

You don't really have time to think about things a lot of times, so you're always going to revert back to the last training you had, Endsley said. When you're on that call, and you've done it in the sim lab 20 times, it's not as big of a deal.