Vietnam War Flight Nurses: A Case Study

1. Introduction Questions arise, people are asking how their grandfather, a family friend, or even a community member once survived the Vietnam War after being severely injured. Flight nurses, would be the answer. Flight nurses played a vital role in the transportation of wounded soldiers by serving to save many lives in the Vietnam War. Flight nurse are nurses that fly around in helicopters to different places of a war zone. They pick up severely wounded patients that need to be escorted to a higher class medical facility.
2. Flight Nurses Experience The Adams sister’s were two young ladies at the time that had the opportunity to be flight nurses. Out of approximately 10,000 nurses, they were one of the first few people to bring …show more content…
Julie has a lot of respect for flight nurses at war, because it is a totally different lifestyle than just a trauma flight nurse transporting patients from hospital to hospital. Julie Dolphin stated in our interview, “It's totally different because I don't have to worry about being shot at, or landing on a landmine!” The type of education that flight nurses had to go through was similar to how it was for flight nurses in the Vietnam war. They still both had to go to survival school, but today there is much more that goes into that than there was in the Vietnam War. That is to specifically make sure that there is no mistakes with a life. Julie had to attend several classes and seminars that made her eligible to be a flight …show more content…
Just to put into perspective, today in order to become a certified flight nurse there is over 11 certifications and degrees that you have to have. To name a few of those, they are a Bachelors degree, basic life support certification, critical care RN, certification flight RN, etc (Flight Nurses). Whereas in the Vietnam war, nurses would be fresh out of college and ending up working at war as a flight nurse or even a base nurse. In my interview with Julie Dolphin, Julie said that the classes she had to go to were very specific. Julie even had to attend a class where they had a helicopter simulator that resembled the exact same a real helicopter would. Those were small, poorly lit, and occasionally had turbulent conditions (Longmore). This prepared flight nurses for what they were actually going to experience. The Today there is a mannequin that costs approximately $160,000 that can do anything that a real living person is capable of (Longmore). This will give the nurses a chance to work in these conditions, without actually assessing a real living patient, and learn how to get around difficult objects. From nurses in the Vietnam war to nurses today there was much change that happened. Today they go through more schooling to make sure that less lives are lost, and their talent is shown correctly. In the