Flight nurse?

NurseKitten, MSN, RN · Aug 1, 2009

RN at the bare minimum. The flight crews around here require an EMT-P as well. One of my gf's is preparing to challenge the EMT-P so she can fly - and they'll be lucky to have her. She has 10 years as an LPN and RN (just finished her ADN 3 years ago) but it's all been in the ER.

Hope that helps.

PICNICRN, BSN, RN · Aug 1, 2009

Depends.... what kind of "flight nurse" you are speaking of.

For instance... I have done helicpter/fixed wing transports for many years... I transport sick children and neonates from community hospitals to our Level I Trauma Children's Hospital. I am an RN with a BSN and I have 14 year of PICU/NICU experience- I started my "transport training" after 3 years in the PICU. I was trained internally by our docs and our transport team. I had 3 months of classroom in "prehospital" and procedures and then spent another 3-6 months performing procedures(intubations, a lines, central lines, ect) under the supervision of a doc.

Now.... there are "flight nurses" who work for companies like "Flight for Life" or "Air Evac" that fly in a helicopter to highway crash sceens, mountain tops, or whatever, and literally scrape people off the highway, recusitate them, and get them to the nearest trauma center- alive! I cannot speak to their training or education.... however, as difficult as I thought my was, I imagine that theirs is much more involved.

For certain you will need ICU, trauma, or ED experience and I'm sure prehospital experience would not hurt either!

I think there is a flight nurse/transport nurse board.... maybe the mods can transfer your thread over there???