Paramedic PapersHome Operations & systems What makes a HEMS nurse: Spanish views
Operations & systems
What makes a HEMS nurse: Spanish views
Nursing Competencies in Helicopter Emergency Medical Services (HEMS) in Spain: A Qualitative Study of Professional Profiles and Advanced Training
Nursing Open · 2026-10 · Added 21 October 2026
A qualitative Spanish study of 17 HEMS professionals found flight nursing was seen as a highly specialised profile requiring critical-care experience, advanced technical skills, aviation safety training and structured in-person education — with no formalised national training pathway.
- Study type
- Qualitative
- Design
- Qualitative study (phenomenologically informed thematic analysis)
- Participants
- 17 HEMS professionals interviewed
- Main finding
- Four themes: access to the HEMS environment, technical competencies, professional role development and structured professionalisation; online-only training widely seen as insufficient
- Caveat
- Small purposive sample in a single country's physician-staffed system; perception-based, no outcome data
- Bottom line
- Context only
Why it matters in Australia (Medium relevance). Spain runs a physician-and-nurse HEMS model unlike Australian flight services, but the emphasis on critical-care depth, CRM and aviation safety echoes what Australian aeromedical retrieval training already requires.
Learning goal
Understand what critical care and aviation competencies underpin safe aeromedical retrieval practice in Australia.
More
- Topic: Operations & systems
- Daily scan: 21 October 2026
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