Flight Nurse for Military

Specialties Flight

Published

I am interested in becoming a flight nurse for the military, and I was wondering if anyone from this profession had any tips or advice for me? Also, do you have any stories about it?

Thank you! :)

Guest374845

207 Posts

There are many recent threads about it in the Gov't/Military nursing section. I encourage you to browse the first page or two, and narrow your search a bit. Military flight nursing is very different from civilian HEMS; there are several varieties depending on your qualifying civilian experience. The differences can be branch-dependent and also can have more strict accession standards (MEPS clearance + FAA-level flight physical).

And you may find us hesitant to share "stories" outside of our circle. Military flight missions aren't like 911 scene calls. Serving those who serve in battle is a distinct privilege in military medicine... you just wouldn't understand unless/until you swear your oath.

Kater1719

7 Posts

Ok thank you! :) and sorry to intrude!

Siberian Husky

13 Posts

I'm going to answer your question, because the only response you got was unhelpful and, to be honest, a little too self absorbed.

I'm a navy nurse attached to a marine corps unit, what that means is that I am currently supporting the marine corps "directly" in Shock Trauma Platoon (this is a google-able mobile military resuscitating support center and if I were to be utilized there is a high likelihood that I could provide "En-Route Care," mostly on helicopter based platforms.

There is not much documented on the usage of flight nurses in the navy/marine corps because the doctrine is vague and I have heard of nurses providing care in a variety of scenarios from picking up injured from point of injury to transporting both stable and even unstable patients from fleet hospitals to larger installations. The air force does most of the longer transports as they have more of the platforms that support that kind of flight medicine.

On the navy side, it is not unusual for you to provide care in "birds" that aren't fully equipped to provide care--you might have all the supplies you need, you might not. You might have a capable corpsman assisting you, you might not. The inconsistency is so pervasive that it demands you accept the reality that flexibility is a must and reliance on your skills is probably more than you would find on the civilian side, where I would imagine things be more regulated and easier to anticipate.

I can't speak to what the army does, but I know they have a large emphasis on air transport with their "dust off" personnel. The military, at least right now, is becoming so intertwined (service-wise) that you might find yourself as a navy nurse, flying on army platforms, supporting marine corps missions.

The training you require, from the navy's perspective, is to be a qualified in at least 1 year of either ED or ICU experience--with ICU being the favored experience. You can ask the military forum about specifics regarding tailoring your military experience/career path to meet some of those prerequisites, but I just wanted to answer your question, and am honestly bothered by any response provided by a service member that dismisses any civilian's honest efforts in learning about how the life is, or what we do.

Good Luck

nurse2033, MSN, RN

3 Articles; 2,133 Posts

Specializes in ER, ICU.
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