I am a LifeFlight Retrieval Registrar, which involves working full time with the Cairns QGAir EMQ Rescue Helicopter. I work alongside an incredibly talented team including the helicopter pilot, aircrew officer, rescue crew officer and intensive care flight paramedic. We operate in shifts over a 24hr period, 7 days a week to provide emergency aeromedical retrievals. This includes facilitating the transfer of critically unwell patients from rural hospitals and health care facilities (such as those I frequently staff as a Rural Generalist) to regional and tertiary facilities. It also involves being tasked as part of the primary response to scenes such as farm accidents, motor vehicle accidents or mass casualty events where we land on scene, provide medical care and fly to definitive care.

Dr Sandi Dawson (FACRRM, ACEM Advanced Trainee, Masters of Public Health & Tropical Medicine)

The challenge of critically ill patients, the problem solving, thinking on your feet outside of the hospital and working with a small team. The flying is simply amazing - it gives you an opportunity to see a lot of Australia and enjoy the much nicer weather!

Dr Sujit Kumarasinghe (UK Emergency Trainee, Postgrad Diploma (in progress) in Remote & Offshore Medicine through The Royal College of Surgeons Edinburgh)

I have been exposed to many different leadership styles throughout my ED training and the specialists who inspired me most had completed some training time in retrievals. In addition to the transferrable skills I would be able to develop, what could be better than having the opportunity to work with like-minded, highly skilled paramedics, nurses, pilots and rescue crew officers in small teams, with the patient at the forefront of all decisions, while working in some of the most spectacular places in Queensland?

Dr Claire Bertenshaw (post Fellowship FACEM training, Masters in Public Health)

Shortly after I obtained my FACEM I was credentialed as a retrieval consultant and took up clinical coordination in addition to my flight shifts. It was initially a scary and uncomfortable experience to hold clinical oversight over patients requiring aeromedical retrieval across an entire state as large as Queensland. However, over time, I noticed a significant overlap between the reasoning skills that I used in the ED and in coordination - and the two jobs have been mutually beneficial ever since.

Dr John Kao (FACEM, Retrieval Consultant, Medical Coordination Consultant)

Spending time on base with the aircrew and the paramedics is amazing, as they all have extensive experience and the best stories! I love the autonomy and the shared mental model of working in a small team with limited resources, in a multitude of unpredictable environments. Unlike in ED, we mostly get to focus on a single patient at a time, often providing a level of intensive care that they might not otherwise receive for several hours or even days. The extensive research occurring in prehospital and retrieval medicine at the moment is also exciting and satisfying, proving that what we do can make a significant difference to a patient’s outcome.

Dr Caroline Venner (UK trained, current ACEM Advanced Trainee, completing Masters in Public Health and Tropical Medicine)