?The Association was created because of the clear, unmet need for flight chaplains in air medical transport programs,? Love said. ?APFC will encourage and provide services to air medical programs that place flight chaplains within their programs, and also will support hospital chaplain training programs through curriculum and flight chaplain training. At no time is there a greater need for pastoral care and comfort than in times of trauma.?

Love said flight crews deal with enormous stress on a daily basis, and on those rare but horrifying occasions when crashes occur, flight chaplain support becomes of key importance. Burnout, cynicism, and post-traumatic stress rates among crews who serve in the air medical transport industry are known concerns.

?Sometimes a flight chaplain will be there for a crew member who has lost a patient or is troubled by aspects of a flight. We also help crew members learn what to say when a patient?s death is imminent during transport. Teaching and helping crews learn how to deal with the difficult, and usually buried emotional side of trauma service, is what we do,? he said. ?Another key and important component of a flight chaplain?s job is to support patients during transport, and their frightened family members.?

Professional Flight Chaplains are trained through certified hospital chaplain programs, which require a master?s degree in divinity or theology, and provide hospital-based clinical pastoral education in hospital and trauma chaplaincy. APFC is developing curriculum for flight chaplain education through its Chaplain Advisory Committee, and is seeking funds to develop and make available the curriculum to flight programs, to hospital CPE programs and to seminaries across the country.