Flying nurses keep smiling

Flying nurse Tania Parr is an expert at smiling through the bumps.

The registered nurse and flight coordinator has been on the job for 13 years now, and has seen a lot of changes, from the days when she was ‘‘pulled off the floor’’ in ICU to work in an unpressurised plane to recent work ferrying patients home during the floods.

Parr is one of nine skilled critical care flying nurses in the Te Whatu Ora Te Tauihu Inter-Hospital Transport Team who on any given day can travel anywhere from Auckland to Invercargill and everywhere in between.

The team works seven days a week, with a typical crew made up of one or two pilots and a nurse, and sometimes with the patient’s whānau sitting alongside as well.

‘‘We’re actually part of the New Zealand Flying Doctor’s service, which is funny, when we don’t have a doctor,’’ she laughs. The nurse-only transport service does, however, work closely with the intensive care doctor who is the medical director of flights.

While many patients enjoy the experience of flying, others are not quite as enthused.

‘‘There’s a lot of people who are very anxious,’’ Parr said.

‘‘I remember one patient that I had who was quite unwell, he was needing heart surgery, and he had his partner with us. She was afraid of flying, and she was sitting in the seat opposite me, and it was a particularly bumpy flight, one of the bumpiest flights we had ever had, and I just sat there smiling the whole time.

‘‘We got on the ground and I said that’s the bumpiest flight I have ever had and I think the pilot said something similar, and she said, ‘I just looked at you, and you were smiling. So I knew everything was okay’.’’

Charge nurse manager patient flow Jayne Rolfe said many people were probably unaware the service existed until they found out they needed it.

The flight team complete around 100 air transports a month – with a lot of patients going to Christchurch and Wellington hospitals. They also bring the sick and injured home.