REUNION ISSUE A Publication of The Frances Payne Bolton School ...

FR NTLINE/FPB
The FPB flight nursing model is one of a kind in that it places
nurse practitioners at the site of an accident and enables them to
begin interventions based on diagnostic reasoning and scientific
inquiry before and during flight. Beginning interventions
immediately — instead of after a patient arrives at the hospital — not
only saves more lives, but improves patients’ long-term quality
of life. When the opportunity to internationally disseminate
the FPB flight nursing model presented itself, FPB seized it.
As a result, the model is implemented at the Cleveland Clinic
Foundation and now in Japan.
Christopher Manacci, MSN ’03, ACNP-C, CCRN, founder and
clinical director of the National Flight Nurse Academy at FPB,
is helping to change the traditional role of nurses in Japan with
his vision for flight nursing. “How close you live to a tertiary
care center will make the determination of whether you survive
your heart attack, stroke or traumatic event,” he explains. “What
our program does, by training people at the graduate level, is
eliminate the seven-year gap between academic research and
clinical practice. Armed with the newest knowledge, acute care
nurse practitioners make a diagnosis, prescribe medication, and
perform other interventions that give the patient the immediate
level of care that is needed out on the field.”
The ‘earthquake victims’ at Squire Valleevue Farm
FPB FLIGHT NURSING MODEL DISSEMINATED
AND IMPLEMENTED INTERNATIONALLY:
The New Collaboration with Japan’s Aichi Medical University
To begin disseminating the FPB flight nursing model, Mr.
Manacci instructed at Aichi Medical University School of
Nursing. In Japan, the concept of a nurse practitioner is
still fairly new. Japan has long been among the world’s most
industrialized and technologically advanced nations, and its
universal health care system is no exception. However, Japanese
nurses are still seeking to increase their clinical education,
autonomy and authority. FPB’s landmark partnership with
Japan’s Aichi Medical University has not only established the
first graduate-level acute care nurse practitioner/flight nursing
program in Asia, it will also enable Japan’s advanced practice
nurses who graduate from the Aichi program to manage complex
medical emergencies with increased knowledge, autonomy, and
skill in critical care; therefore, beginning to help revolutionize
nursing in Japan. The new collaboration continues to
demonstrate that nurses are integral to bringing innovation and
progress to the science and delivery of health care everywhere.
Earlier this year, Satomi Suzuki, a member of the Aichi
University nursing faculty and a registered nurse, visited FPB to
take some courses in acute critical care and shadow the Cleveland
Clinic’s helicopter medical transport operation, all to obtain
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The Frances Payne Bolton School of Nursing Case Western Reserve University 43