ABSTRACT
As part of emergency medicine, prehospital care is provided to seriously sick or injured patients who need treatment before they are transferred to a hospital. A flight doctor and a flight nurse normally administer prehospital care to these patients by flying to a rendezvous point to which an ambulance crew brings the patient. Flight doctors and flight nurses must work within various constraints differing from those they face in their usual work in a hospital Emergency Medical Unit in terms of staff numbers, devices for testing, and types of medicine. However, it is not easy for them to learn the competences involved in the practical management of prehospital care through socialization as only a limited number of individuals can fly in a helicopter. Our study aims at presenting the competences of flight nurses that are involved in the practical management of prehospital care activities through examining moment-by-moment interaction among a flight doctor, a flight nurse, and emergency crew members. By examining what is known to the members at each moment, including what is taken for granted by the members and thus not explicitly expressed in words but nevertheless known to them, we intend to present another way of approaching issues of interprofessional collaboration in health care settings.
