Citation

Meadley B, Horton E, Perraton L, Smith K, Bowles KA, Caldwell J. Ergonomics 2021; ePub(ePub): ePub.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2021, Informa - Taylor and Francis Group)

DOI

10.1080/00140139.2021.1998645

PMID

34694962

Abstract

Physically demanding water and over land winch rescues are critical tasks for helicopter paramedics. To assess the physiological demands of winch rescue, 14 intensive care flight paramedics (12 male, 2 female, mean (±SD) age 44.3 (±5.4) years, experience 7.1 (±5.2) years) completed land and water-based task simulations. For the land task, VO(2) was 41.7 (±4.5) mL.kg(-1).min(-1), or 86 (±11) % of VO(2peak). Task duration was 7.0 (±3.6) min, or 53 (±27) % of maximal acceptable work duration (MAWD) (13.2 (±9.0) min). For the water task, VO(2) was 36.7 (±4.4) mL.kg(-1).min(-1), (81 (±12) % of VO(2peak)). Water task duration was 10.2 (±1.1) minutes, or 47.6 (±4.8) % of calculated MAWD (21.0 (±15.6) min). These results demonstrate that helicopter rescue paramedics work at very high physiological workloads for moderate durations, and these demands should be considered when developing selection tests and when deploying to rescues, to ensure staff are capable of task performance.

Practitioner summaryParamedics performed helicopter winch rescue task simulations in water and over land. Paramedics worked at 81% of VO(2peak) for 10.2 minutes and 86% of VO(2peak) for 7 minutes for swim and land tasks respectively. Rescue organisations should consider these demands when selecting and credentialing staff and when deploying to incidents.

Language: en

Keywords

Search and rescue; Human performance; Aerobic capacity; Paramedic; Physical employment standards