I was really excited for today! A day shadowing the air ambulance crew for the Stavanger Hospital. I arrived at the base at 9am sharp, which was only about 100m from my hotel. The crew greeted me and showed me around the base. Included in the crew was the pilot, the 'rescue man' and the doctor. The rescue man was trained in aviation, emergency care, and rescue where patients were in difficult situations. This person was considered the glue of the crew - a Jack of all trades. The crew live in the base, which was also very much like a house, for a week. They work 24/7 for a week and get 3 weeks off. This is on a rotational basis so that there is a crew working all the time. 
I was shown around the helipcopter which was amazing. It was such a modern helicopter with all the latest gadgets and gizmos (not exact technicle terms obviously). We ran through the safety ptocedures in case we were called out on a 'mission'. Inside the helicopter, I was shown where I would need to sit in the case of an emergency where we were called out. It was extremely claustrophobic inside and I felt slightly anxious about the prospect of needing to go out. Anyone that knows me will know I am not a great flyer anyway but I did feel in good hands as the pilot had 25 years of flying experience in the milatry, search and rescue as well as the air ambulance. There was limited space for people in the helipcopter. Enough for the crew, myself and one patient (led down on the stretcher at the end of the helicopter). I was also shown the night goggles that they had which was really interesting. I was put into a pitch black room and could see everything in there, totally bizarre! The goggles were very well looked after as they cost £10,000 - I felt lucky to have even touched them!
Whilst I was being shown the flight deck- the alarm went off. It was all stations go! The crew started running and I ran frantically after them not really knowing what I was doing. They gave me an ambulance crew jacket and told me to run to the ambulance car. We were unable to use the helipcopter as the weather was so bad that the visibility was poor which meant the pilot wouldn't be able to see where to land. We jumped into the car and we were off within seconds. The information was coming in via the radio in Norwegian so I wasn't sure what the emergency was. The driver (rescue man) was honestly driving 150km/hour, at one point I swear we were on two wheels going around a corner in the rain whilst avoiding on coming traffic! I've never experienced anything like it! My eyes were on the road at all times as I started to feel motion sickness coming on... not the time Chelsea, not the time! 10 minutes later we arrived at an RTA. Thankfully, everyone involved was not too seriously injured. The doctor check one over and they were both taken to the hospital in an ambulance van to be properly checked. Back to the base we headed.
The doctor then showed me some of the medical equipment and medication used which was really interesting. We then all sat down in the lounge area and chatted about where I was from and what I wanted to gain from my experience in Norway. I felt I learnt alot about how things worked at Stavanger hospital during these discussions. They all seemed to really enjoy their job which was great to see but it obviously came with it's challenges for them in terms of the types of emergencies they see.
We were called out another two times with more serious emergencies. At the end of the day, the crew sat around the table together and debriefed on the days events which was facilitated by the pilot. The discussion went on for about 45 minutes and there were a few things they felt they could learn from the events. This was the first proper debrief I had seen and it was great to experience how well it worked and how easy the converstaion flowed. I felt I wanted to stay longer as I had gained alot from the experience but by 5pm, my time was up and I headed back to my hotel. I had seen a lot today, some good and some bad things, but I felt the debrief had helped me to rationalise what had happened. This emphasised to me how important this is and how we could be using this within our maternity services for staff, as our obstetric experiences and situtaions are becoming more and more complex.
Tomorrow I have another day on the maternity unit, but this time on the low risk birthing unit.