hyperbaric nurses out there?...need advice pls

[travelling_hel]

Hey,#

I am considering a career in hyperbaric medicing and really not sure what route to take. I am not yet a nurse but considering it to get into this field. Have been a diving instructor for many years and very interested. I have heard that I could also do a dive medical technician course and then a chamber operator course...or should i do nursing. Does anyone know if enrolled nurses can work in hyperbaric?

All advice welcome!

[XB9S, BSN, MSN, EdD, RN, APN]

Hi there,

welcome to allnurses, I am going to move your post into the Hyperbaric nurse forum for you to get a better response

[RN1989]

If you are sure that you want to do this, you probably would find more jobs as a tech then as a nurse. The majority of clinics that have an HBO chamber generally utilize techs due to the lower cost of paying a tech, compared to the cost of paying a nurse being trained to run the chamber. HBO medicine is big business. It would be easier as a tech to avoid having the fight of knowing that an insurance company is being defrauded by the clinic in order get that money to treat a pt that doesn't completely qualify for HBO. If you were a nurse, you would have a better idea of whether or not the pt fit the accepted parameters and could be faced with fraud issues from money hungry clinic directors. Sometimes the less you know, the less stress you have.

[diveRN]

When I was more active in dive instructing, I thought this was going to be the way for me to go as well. I went so far as to become a DMT, it's only 40 hours if you're an EMT, but never actually used it in practice because there isn't a chamber near me. Driving 2.5 hours to volunteer didn't thrill me either and relocating wasn't an option, so I've since let my cert lapse. If you're not an EMT, plan on getting that done too, that's +/- 160 hours.

I found that hyperbaric jobs are few and far between, but they are out there. If you don't live in an area with a large diving population, don't count on finding anything too quickly. If you can volunteer somewhere and get your foot in the door, even better. You're an instructor... you know the industry... if you can relocate someplace where the diving population is more dense, you probably stand a better chance at finding the work you seek. SoCal, southern Florida, the Caribbean ... when I was actively looking, that's where I found the jobs to be.

DAN offers DMT and HCO training and is probably the most recognized in the diving world. Get to know some people there, you could probably get your foot in the door.

My .02.