First aircraft pilot, "Hey brother, how you doing out there?"
Second aircraft pilot, "Livin' the dream."
First pilot, "Roger that! It's 98 degrees and I am wearing a dark jumpsuit."
(Editors note: If there is any justice in this life or the next, the person in management/marketing who decided that a dark flight suit "looks good" and made this the uniform for those flying and working HEMS in southern summer weather will someday be forced to wear one. While working outside.)
It's hot out folks. Drink water till you grow gills. Dehydration degrades mood, performance, and judgement.
Speaking about this as a flight RN that wears a black flight suit.......in Southern California, i can relate. Hydration is a beast of an enemy! But, its something we can mitigate quite easily if you're thinking about it.
ReplyDeleteThe thinking about it part lies in this; "there are "insensible" flight stressors in our environment". Things such as Low O2, low humidity, dehydration and insensible water loss, vibration, nighttime evolutions, and critical pt's can all contribute to a degraded performance for nurses, medics and of course pilots. What can we do about these flight stressors? Well, we can't make the pt less sick. we can't adjust the humidity and we can't reconfigure Daltons law to adjust the O2 at altitude. We CAN however maintain our hydration status. Its an easy thing to mitigate and ONE way to lessen the stressors of flight.
Hit the water all day long, pee often and have a great shift!