What are the education requirements for a flight nurse?

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I am currently pursuing a BSN but wish to take my education further, I have considered flight nursing but I would like some more info. Can anyone tell me the basics? Anyone out there a flight nurse??

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Specializes in NICU.

Most hospitals require Pre-Hospital Trauma Life Support, ACLS, PALS certifications. Generally, flight nurses are required to have at least 5 years of experience in a critical care hospital setting (ER, ICU, etc.). Most require CCRN, CEN, or CFRN. Some states also require RNs to be paramedics also.

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I only know one state where it is an actual state mandated requirement for the RN to have at least EMT. That is Florida. What are the other states Don1984? There must be at least a couple more since EMS statutes are written very specific to limit who can work prehospital.

Some of the requirements will vary depending on th;e type of service the heliocopter provides and the type of patients. Some might be strictly HEMS and do scene response with a limited and specific set of protocols. Some might be more inter facility. Some might do only adults when there are other specialty teams. Some might do it all. You can start researching the flight teams where you want to work and live for more specific information.

The BSN is a good start. Landing a job, getting into the ED and the ICUs and getting all the certs while gaining experience will be the next steps. A bunch of weekend certs are meaningless without the experience. As you work in each area you will quickly pick up on what areas you need to focus on.

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I only know one state where it is an actual state mandated requirement for the RN to have at least EMT. That is Florida. What are the other states Don1984? There must be at least a couple more since EMS statutes are written very specific to limit who can work prehospital.

Virginia did at one time. However, as I have not been involved in flight/transport nursing for several years this might have changed.

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Specializes in Critical Care, ED, Cath lab, CTPAC,Trauma.

While it may not be required by the state....many flight companies prefer it...especially if you do accident response. Because flight nurses play such a critical role in providing proper patient care and safety they are required to be highly trained, certified and experienced in many areas of critical care before being able to qualify for a position as a flight nurse.

In order to become a flight nurse an individual must first obtain several years of experience as a registered nurse and generally needs to have at least 5 years of experience in a hospital that specialize in intensive care. Most hiring agencies require registered nurses that are applying for positions as flight nurses to hold at least a bachelor’s degree (the more education the better).

All potential flight nurses must first complete post-graduate training as an emergency nurse and/or intensive care nurse as well as have extensive training in hemodynamic support, vasoactive medications, mechanical ventilation and a variety of other skills related to intensive care.

Flight nurses must also become certified in several areas such as:

  • Basic Life Support Certification
  • Critical Care Registered Nurse
  • Certified Emergency Nurse
  • Certified Flight Registered Nurse
  • Advanced Cardiac Life Support
  • Pediatric Advanced Life Support
  • Pre-Hospital Trauma Life Support
  • Neonatal Resuscitation Certification
  • CPR Certification
  • EMS Certification/Licence

Additional Training and Certification

  • Trauma Nurse Core Course
  • Advanced Trauma Care for Nurses
  • Advanced Trauma Life Support
  • Commission on Accreditation of Medical Transport Systems
  • Transport Nurse Advanced Trauma Course...TNATC Advanced Provider Course

http://www.lifeflight.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=83&Itemid=202
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Specializes in ED, trauma.
While it may not be required by the state....many flight companies prefer it...especially if you do accident response. Because flight nurses play such a critical role in providing proper patient care and safety they are required to be highly trained, certified and experienced in many areas of critical care before being able to qualify for a position as a flight nurse.

In order to become a flight nurse an individual must first obtain several years of experience as a registered nurse and generally needs to have at least 5 years of experience in a hospital that specialize in intensive care. Most hiring agencies require registered nurses that are applying for positions as flight nurses to hold at least a bachelor’s degree (the more education the better).

All potential flight nurses must first complete post-graduate training as an emergency nurse and/or intensive care nurse as well as have extensive training in hemodynamic support, vasoactive medications, mechanical ventilation and a variety of other skills related to intensive care.

Flight nurses must also become certified in several areas such as:Additional Training and Certificationhttp://www.lifeflight.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=83&Itemid=202

Hazardous Material Training

[*]HazMat

[*]NIMS Training IS 100, 200, 700, 800

I passed NCLEX in June and finished my bachelors in August. I have BLS, ACLS, PALS, NIH, NIMS, and have taken a critical care course as part of my course work. I can't even find a med surg position.

Wish I could say nursing school was worth it. Taking my EMT-B exam in a few weeks. Hopefully that will at least provide me an income until someone thinks I'm good enough to hire as a nurse. Maybe in 5 years I can be hired to an emergency department or ICU where I can gain the experience necessary.

So many people go to nursing school to become a CRNA and graduate and get into ICU and leave in 2 years.

For people who go to nursing school to be a flight nurse, why can't more of them find an ED or ICU position?!?!

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I passed NCLEX in June and finished my bachelors in August. I have BLS, ACLS, PALS, NIH, NIMS, and have taken a critical care course as part of my course work. I can't even find a med surg position.

Wish I could say nursing school was worth it. Taking my EMT-B exam in a few weeks. Hopefully that will at least provide me an income until someone thinks I'm good enough to hire as a nurse. Maybe in 5 years I can be hired to an emergency department or ICU where I can gain the experience necessary.

So many people go to nursing school to become a CRNA and graduate and get into ICU and leave in 2 years.

For people who go to nursing school to be a flight nurse, why can't more of them find an ED or ICU position?!?!

You just graduated in August? Many new grads have been looking for an RN job for well over 2 years. This also includes the aspiring CRNAs from that group.

The problem I see is a lack of flexibility. You want an ICU or ED job. Sometimes you have to take other jobs and show you are flexible and willing to do PATIENT CARE regardless of the setting. Not all flight patients will be waiting neatly for you in an ED bed. As a flight nurse you will need to be able to work in many different environments with some lacking in space and equipment. Not every flight patient is a cool trauma either. You will see all types of medical patients and not just the ICU type.

You are also going to find that being an EMT is not going to open up many doors either. With the easy entry and class time for EMT, thousands are out there in the job market with many being unemployed. An EMT mill can churn out at least 20 - 40 students easily every 3 weeks to take the cert exam. Many people from other professions who had been laid off have done these easy courses with the promise of quick employment. Some of them hold Masters degrees in their own professions.

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Specializes in Critical Care, ED, Cath lab, CTPAC,Trauma.
I passed NCLEX in June and finished my bachelors in August. I have BLS, ACLS, PALS, NIH, NIMS, and have taken a critical care course as part of my course work. I can't even find a med surg position.

Wish I could say nursing school was worth it. Taking my EMT-B exam in a few weeks. Hopefully that will at least provide me an income until someone thinks I'm good enough to hire as a nurse. Maybe in 5 years I can be hired to an emergency department or ICU where I can gain the experience necessary.

So many people go to nursing school to become a CRNA and graduate and get into ICU and leave in 2 years.

For people who go to nursing school to be a flight nurse, why can't more of them find an ED or ICU position?!?!

Because right now there is no nursing shortage....jobs are hard to come by for any new grad...some areas of the country have as high as 47% unemployment of new grads. Starting new grad positions in specialty areas are very limited...as they should be. Historically, new grads were not hired into any critical areas with critical patients until a couple of years med-surg or telemetry had solidified your basic skills.

All these CRNA's that leave critical care in 2 years is souring many employers against hiring new grads.....you spend all the time training and educating them and they leave without a glance back....I get it but it's tough to keep training new grads every 2 years.

It is tough to orient a new grad to a critical care area when they are just learning basic skills, so you can't have too many at one time. The environment is fast paced and is dependent on strong core skills...which a new grad doesn't have yet.

A critical care course in your course work in no way compares to what you learn as a critical care nurse. Trauma flight nursing/critical care transport is a highly specialized area of nursing. You need a strong critical care/emergency care...preferably level I trauma before you have the skills necessary to transport the sickest of the sick. The requirement is 3-5 years experience in critical areas.

Prior to active flight status, all medical personnel must have the following current certifications and must maintain them in a current status.

FLIGHT NURSES

  • Minimum 3 years current critical care experience
  • State RN license (Must have license for states served)
  • BLS (Basic Life Support for Health Care Providers
  • ACLS (American Heart Association Advanced Cardiac Life Support)
  • PALS (American Heart Association Pediatric Advanced Life Support)
  • PHTLS (National Association of Emergency Medical Technicians Pre-Hospital Trauma Life support OR
  • ITLS (International Trauma Life Support)

All nurses are required to hold an advanced certification (CFRN, CEN, CCRN) within 2 years of hire.

Additional State Specific Requirements

Illinois

Registered Nurses are required to obtain within (6) months of hire, and maintain provider status for the following:

  • TNCC (Emergency Nurses Association Trauma Nursing Core Course OR
  • TNS (Trauma Nurse Specialist)

Texas

Registered Nurses are required to obtain within (6) months of hire, and maintain provider status for the following:

  • Texas State Emergency Medical Technician (EMT) Certification

Tennessee

Registered Nurses are required to obtain and maintain within one year of hire the following:

  • Emergency Medical Technician (EMT) license and
  • Either a Certified Emergency Nurse (CEN), Critical Care Registered Nurse (CCRN), or
  • Certified Flight Registered Nurse (CFRN)

Arkansas

Registered Nurses are required to obtain and maintain prior to hire the following:

  • Arkansas State Emergency Medical Technician (EMT) Certification

Kentucky

Registered Nurses are required to obtain and maintain prior to hire the following:

  • NRP (Neonatal Resuscitation Program)

This is a highly skilled area that requires experienced nurses and paramedics. Did you think that you could come out of nursing school and after a brief period get on a flight crew? It isn't that easy. You do realize that the pay isn't all that great when compared to what you are doing. Many facilities are asking for a masters these days.

There are now MS NP programs that specialize in flight nursing...Flight Nursing Program: Frances Payne Bolton School of Nursing at Case Western Reserve University

A nice synopsis of flight nursing

http://www.astna.org/documents/SoYouWanttoBeaFlightNursePDF_000.pdf

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Basic Life Support Certification

Critical Care Registered Nurse

Certified Emergency Nurse

Certified Flight Registered Nurse

Advanced Cardiac Life Support

Pediatric Advanced Life Support

Pre-Hospital Trauma Life Support

Neonatal Resuscitation Certification

CPR Certification

EMS Certification/Licence

You can always tell the "warm body" websites.

I like CalStar's website better since it gives a more detailed list of expectations.

https://home.eease.adp.com/recruit2/?id=1096571&t=1

CPR comes with BLS and I don't know many licensed health care workers who don't hold a CPR card.

Licence should be spelled License.

ACLS, PALS and NRP should be part of most ED requirements and in the ICUs.

Many hospitals do encourage RNs to get their specialty certs in their work areas regardless of where it is which can also include Med-surg and rehab. CCRN and CEN should make sense although the CEN has very few experience requirements.

RN can not certify in ATLS. Only physicians and the ACS might now be recognizing PAs and NPs.

To the OP:

Just concentrate on getting a job. If you have to take med-surg, learn from it. Get used to taking many patients and giving attention to small details. Practice assessments and more assessments. Learn everything about medications you can and all the different forms or methods. Offer to be trained to other areas like surgical, ortho or whatever and offer to float. Word will get around that you are willing and flexible as well as a team player. The ICU managers will take note when you do apply. These are also valuable qualities to have as a flight team member. You study whatever you need to as you move along in your career to do the very best job in whatever area you are in. You can then take the extra professional and weekend certs. It is hard to call ACLS and PALS professional certs since there are essentially so watered down a lay person could pass them after reading the book and reviewing the websites. But, many employers require them.

It is hard to just give a list of what you should know but you will quickly know it when you get into the hospital situation. Your competency check off list will be a good guide for the expectations. The most important thing is to be competent in all the knowledge and skills rather than just doing an overview review. That is what the 5 years of experience is all about. Many good flight RNs will tell you 10 years of experience is barely enough to be competent in all aspects of critical care. The RNs who are not on hospital based flight programs will also tell you if they are honest enough about how difficult it is to keep up with all the new equipment and meds.

So, just concentrate on getting a great job regardless of where it is. A large hospital with many different units and its own flight teams would be a plus. Take whatever job you can and show you can make the very best of it. This will get you noticed if you have the attitude for it. Do what is required and excel at it. Then concentrate on all the extras. Don't worry about an EMS cert just yet unless you want to get the EMT in a short course and do some volunteer ambulance work. Don't let it distract you from your goals as an RN.

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Specializes in Critical Care, ED, Cath lab, CTPAC,Trauma.
You can always tell the "warm body" websites.

I like CalStar's website better since it gives a more detailed list of expectations.

https://home.eease.adp.com/recruit2/?id=1096571&t=1

CPR comes with BLS and I don't know many licensed health care workers who don't hold a CPR card.

Licence should be spelled License.

ACLS, PALS and NRP should be part of most ED requirements and in the ICUs.

Many hospitals do encourage RNs to get their specialty certs in their work areas regardless of where it is which can also include Med-surg and rehab. CCRN and CEN should make sense although the CEN has very few experience requirements.

RN can not certify in ATLS. Only physicians and the ACS might now be recognizing PAs and NPs.

Ok typo......out of over 20,000 posts I make an error or two.....I'm completely guilty of typographical errors every now and then....and it wasn't my typo.

I had to have ATLS....I was not certified but I had to go. I can go to many flight sites and get direct requirements and they will vary company to company.....whether or not they do accident site retrieval

Here is one....http://www.lifeflight.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=83&Itemid=202.

Qualifications:

  • Minimum of five (5) years of ICU/ED/Trauma experience within the last ten (10) years.
  • Previous flight experience preferred.
  • Flight experience can be substituted year for year for the ICU/ED/Trauma requirement.
  • Current licensure and/or certification as listed below:
    • RN license as appropriate to assigned location
    • Basic Life Support (BLS) certification
    • Advanced Cardiac Life Support (ACLS)
    • Pre-hospital Trauma Life Support (PHTLS) or Basic Trauma Life Support (BTLS) certification
    • Pediatric Advanced Life Support (PALS) or Pediatric Pre-Hospital (PEPP) certification
    • Neonatal Resuscitation Program (NRP) certification
    • Trauma Nurse Advanced Trauma Course (TNATC) or Trauma Nursing Core Curriculum (TNCC) certification. Must have successfully completed the TNATC course prior to assuming independent duties; thereafter either TNATC or TNCC (or equivalent) must be current
    • Certified Emergency Nurse (CEN) or Critical Care Nurse (CCRN) until certified as a Flight Registered Nurse (CFRN)

    [*]Must obtain certification as a CFRN within one year of hire

    [*]Completion of Department of Transportation Air Medical Curriculum within six months of hire

    [*]Complies with weight restrictions (maximum 250 pounds fully outfitted to perform the job)

    [*]Strong leadership skills and ability to communicate and work with a variety of people one-on-one and in large groups, often in highly stressful situations

    [*]Ability to work varied shifts and cover fixed wing call shifts

Here is another....http://www.mercyflightcentral.org/position-detail-fn.html

and another....

QUALIFICATIONS FOR FLIGHT NURSE:

The qualifications listed are representative of those required to successfully fulfill job responsibilities, but may include program-specific qualifications not listed. Contact local program representative for additional requirements.

Must have current and unlimited practice License/Certification in state of assigned practice commensurate with position

Meet and maintain all qualifications as a flight nurse

Must have BLS, ACLS, PALS, CAMTS approved trauma course ie: ITLS/TNATC/PHTLS/PHTLS/TNCC (with advanced skills)

Working knowledge of Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook

REQUIRED:

Education:

Graduate of an accredited School of Nursing

Experience: Minimum three years critical care/emergency/ICU nursing experience

Licenses & Certificates:

Current RN license(s) for states of practice

EMT-P or EMT-B certification as required by state EMS agency

Current certifications in BLS/CPR; ACLS; PALS, TNATC, ATLS, PHTLS/ITLS (with advanced skills) or equivalent (trauma within 6 months of hire)

NRP strongly encouraged

Specialty Certification: CFRN, CCRN, CEN required within 2 years of hire.

Preferred:

Experience with Online Learning Management Systems

CFRN certification

Physical Requirements:

Ability to conduct activities requiring lifting, carrying, pushing or pulling of burdens, up to 50 kilograms on a frequent basis

Must maintain a weight limits of 220 lbs. while in full uniform

Ability to conduct activities requiring climbing, stooping, kneeling/bending and reaching on a limited basis

Must possess and maintain sense of touch, smell, and hearing

Must possess and maintain sense of sight including the ability to see clearly for long distances, close proximity, and distinguish colors

Must have the ability to equalize pressure in both ears

Working Conditions:

Indoor/outdoor, flight line, and hangar locations in variable weather conditions

Indoor/ outdoor, classroom environment, at TriState CareFlight and customer facilities

Frequent travel to customer facilities

Environmental Conditions:

Work will be performed in, on, or near operational aircraft

Exposure to aircraft noise, fumes, gases, odors, dust and dirt particles, and mechanical hazards

Frequent exposure to extremes of heat and cold in all weather conditions

Significant vibration during take-off and landing of aircraft

Works in extremes of height and motion

Frequent exposure to blood and body fluids

Subject to long, irregular hours, overtime and some call-back may be required

Subject to varying and unpredictable situations, including the possibility of injury, permanent disability, and death _________________________________________________________

http://jobs.emsflightcrew.com/taxonomy/term/5

and finally Boston med flight......http://www.bostonmedflight.org/pdf/CCTNurse2012.pdf

Some require more some require less.

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Ok typo......out of over 20,000 posts I make an error or two.....I'm completely guilty of typographical errors every now and then....and it wasn't my typo. .

I never said you made a typo. I was referring to the website and their cookie cutter weekend certs and lax spell checking.

I had to have ATLS....I was not certified but I had to go. I can go to many flight sites and get direct requirements and they will vary company to company.....whether or not they do accident site retrieval

.

I didn't say you couldn't take it. I stated RNs can not be certified in it. It is not cheap if your hospital or flight service is not paying for it.

Our medical director took the course and then taught us whatever procedures we could do by our scope of practice. Without the oversight of your medical director and the blessing from the BON, ATLS does not mean very much. The knowledge is good but again, if your medical director wants you to know this, he or she should be overseeing your training.

Again, most of the websites just post the weekend certs which are no brainers. There are also too many companies out there which are just filling positions for the lowest pay.

Some find a comfortable "ICU" gig and get the alphabet soup to meet the minimums to apply for a flight job. I would hope the OP wants to excel and not just do the minimum with a checklist of "certs". The certs will come if you work in all the units. EMS certs are also not that difficult to get and I don't see any advantage for a critical care RN to also be a firefighter to gain Paramedic experience.

Essentially all I am saying is just focus on getting a foot in the door by being prepared for the current job market. Then be the best you can be the climb on the experience ladder. Get the certs you need for today. Accumulate the others as the job description for the immediate next step dictates. Weekend certs are not that big of a deal to get but a PIA to maintain all of them.

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Specializes in Critical Care, ED, Cath lab, CTPAC,Trauma.

I agree that I hope he doesn't want a minimal cookie cutter experience either. Not all paramedic departments/trucks are fire department based...here in New England many are private owned companies....the fire department responds BLS and call an ambulance company for ALS support. It's crazy....they drive around in a bronco with their stuff/meds.

Even in Boston proper...they are Armstrong ....not fire department based.

When I was flying...we were also paramedics and flew a resident...we did A LOT on some flights....especially every 6 months when they "switched".

I just think that if one is considering to be a trauma flight nurse they need to have a solid base of the basics that only a year or two on Medsurg/telemetry can supply before moving on to ICU/ER to become a flight nurse. It' a much harder job than that.

I stand corrected I thought you thought I made the mistake...I apologize.:yes:

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