CCAT / Flight Nurses in Airforce

jfratian, DNP, RN, CRNA · Sep 23, 2014

I'm AD AF, but not flight or CCATT (2 t's by the way). Just so you know, they are completely different tracks. The AF mandates that you do at least 2 assignments when they re-train you, therefore I would say it's very difficult to do both.

CCATT nurses are critical care nurses who take care of ICU patients during transport as part of a 3-man team. They don't get their wings (flight nursing specialty badge), because they aren't responsible for the plane. Their training is only about a month. CCATT assignments are part-time/short-term deals of 6 months or less. You go back to your ICU when you're done.

Flight nurses really are just med-surg nurses who take care of med-surg level patients during transport. They do get their wings, because they have a lot more responsibility for the aircraft. They undergo rigorous flight and survival training as part of a ~ 12-week course (don't quote me on that exact number). These are long-term assignments of at least several years.

You could easily have both types of nurses on the same C-17, but the flight nurses aren't taking the ventilators, vasoactive drips, etc. CCATT nurses follow the patients while flight nurses follow the plane.

DGizyn · Sep 23, 2014

Yep, just trying to get an idea of the daily differences between the two/training/etc.

I'm aware they're vastly different.

jfratian, DNP, RN, CRNA · Sep 23, 2014

Sorry, but that's all I've got. I'm not sure if that was anything you didn't already know.