The physiological demands of helicopter winch rescue in water and over land

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, VO₂ was 41.7 (±4.5) mL kg−¹ min−¹, or 86 (±11) % of VO₂ₚₑₐₖ. 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, VO2 was 36.7 (±4.4) mL kg−¹ min−¹, (81 (±12) % of VO₂ₚₑₐₖ). Water task duration was 10.2 (±1.1) min, 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.

  • Record URL:
  • Availability:
  • Supplemental Notes:
    • © 2021 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. Abstract reprinted with permission of Taylor & Francis.
  • Authors:
    • Meadley, Ben
    • Horton, Ella
    • Perraton, Luke
    • Smith, Karen
    • Bowles, Kelly-Ann
    • Caldwell, Joanne
  • Publication Date: 2022-6

Language

  • English

Media Info

Subject/Index Terms

Filing Info

  • Accession Number: 01857478
  • Record Type: Publication
  • Files: TRIS
  • Created Date: Sep 12 2022 10:22AM