Flight Nurses Staffing in the ED

[LSU Nurse]

I am a flight nurse at a hospital based program that requires there nurses to staff in the ED until a flight call is received. We are paid a $0.50 differential per hour to staff in the ED and fly. Does anyone else have to staff in the ED while waiting for a flight? And does anyone get a different differential for being a flight nurse?

[nghtfltguy, BSN, RN]

i work in the ED as well when waiting for a flight .. no differential!

im gonna have to have a talk w/ someone about that...

*lookin up my senators phone number............*

i guess they don't give us any more pay because of the higher pay we recieve than staff already... who knows...

[LSU Nurse]

Do you get paid more as a flight nurse than a staff nurse? Our problem is that we don't get paid much more than staff nurses and we have a lot more training and new more expensive uniforms. Our hospital doesn't help us with uniform expense either.

How many flights per year does your team fly? Do you float in the ED or take full patient load.

I am asking because our team is writing a proposal for a raise and it is hard to do research on this topic because hospitals don't exactly advertise what their nurses do on down time.

[kalbo3]

I enjoy working in the ED when not flying. It makes the time go by much faster and also keeps me close to the staff in the department. They know that I don't have to be there helping them but they sure do appreciate any help that I do give them.

[Medicine Eagle]

I live in Missouri. The flight nurses do not staff the ER while waiting on a call. Some work per diem ER b/c they want to, but to my knowledge Air Evac nor ARCH forces the nurses to do that.

[sjt9721, BSN, RN]

I live in Missouri. The flight nurses do not staff the ER while waiting on a call. Some work per diem ER b/c they want to, but to my knowledge Air Evac nor ARCH forces the nurses to do that.

I think the OP is referring to flight programs that are part of the hospital. Air Evac is not a hospital-based provider. Flight personnel are employees of Air Evac, not the hospital. (I'm not sure about ARCH.)