Advice for Army flight nurse career

[dyoung]

This is my first post so sorry about any issues. Here's some background info; I am about to graduate high school and will be attending Texas A&M in the fall. I received a full Army ROTC scholarship and will enter into the nursing school there. I am taking a night class at my local community college to get my EMT basic certification. My goal is to become a flight nurse, and I am wondering if there is a way to do this in the Army. I am more interested in rotor-wing and from what I understand the air force has the majority of these jobs. So my question is whether or not this is a pursuable career in the army or if I should wait until I move back to the private sector to get my training. Thanks for any help!

[emccunningham]

I deployed as an Army flight nurse on Blackhawk helicopters two years ago. Unfortunately, there is no way to be a permanent flight nurse in the Army. That job doesn't exist. I am an ICU nurse and had the opportunity to do this job overseas but when I came home I went back to the ICU. 

All Army nurses start out as medical-surgical nurses and after about two years have the option to specialize. The ICU is a specialty option. The first step is do the time in med-surg then apply for the Army's 4-month critical care nursing course. 

If you want to be a flight nurse, the better way to go is the Air Force. They have opportunities for aeromedical evacuation that involves non-critical patients and critical care air transport that requires an ICU nurse, respiratory therapist, and intensivist. They mostly operate on fixed wing aircraft- C-130 or C-17.

Of course, this all could change but that's how things are right now. 

Unless you really want to be a nurse, I recommend becoming a paramedic. They have permanent positions in both the active Army and the National Guard. I deployed with a NG unit and they were awesome. A lot of them worked as ground or flight paramedics in their civilian jobs. The NG paramedics did more missions that the Active Duty medics too. The National Guard has a stateside mission (I.e. search and rescue) and their flight hour requirements are the same as Active Duty.