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Discussion

Navy or Airforce RN

First post so go easy...

Graduated with a BSN in May 2017. Coming up on 1 year in the ER in January 2019.

Current certs BLS, ACLS, PALS and working on TNCC and ECRN.

2 years of Army ROTC in college. I loved the experience and is the reason why the military is still a goal for me.

Currently I am juggling between the Navy or Air force as the next step. Ultimately I want to do flight nursing. Obviously the Air force has more flight opportunities, but I was told that the Navy has flight nurses as well.

A few of the people I work with in the ED are Navy vets that have worked with flight nurses. I am interested in any type of flight, but the dream job would be on rotary wing.

I don't have specific questions, but I do have bullet points/topics that I was hoping to have covered in your responses.

1. Flight nurse vs enroute critical care?

2. Pathway (direct or long application into flight)?

3. Duty stations

4. Overall experience (likes and dislikes).

As of right now, the Navy is what I am leaning towards, but that can change if the Air Force would be the only way I could do flight.

Thank you in advance for your response.

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    • Experts

    You have a much better likelihood of getting flight nursing in the AF. The Navy has flight nursing, but it's really limited compared to the AF. I'm surprised you know multiple Navy flight nurses as a civilian; they are a bit of a rarity.

    For the AF, you should steer towards "CCATT" (critical care air transport team) and "TCCET" (tactical critical care emergency team); they are your ER/ICU nursing in the air. "Flight nursing" is really just long-distance med-surg nursing in the air; your focus is really more on mission planning, logistics, and flight safety...not so much patient care.

    CCATT and TCCET take AF ICU and ER nurses. You need to aim there first. Make sure you're ER gives you routine experience with drips and vents. ER nurses disproportionately struggle and fail the AF CCATT course due to lack of experience with these critical skills.

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    • Author

    Thanks for the response.

    The Navy vets in my ER were aerospace medical PAs. but they did say they flew with nurses.

    To my understanding, the majority of flights for the AF are done in the reserve or ANG units.

    I am not too worried about drips and vents as I see those fairly often in our ED. We are a level 2 trauma, but we see the most level 1s out of all the levels 2s in our area do to our location and pt population. more often than not we are boarding ICU and tele pts.

    Are CCATT and TCCET teams usually on deployments? so for the most part nurses will be at a medical facility?

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    • Experts

    Yes, the vast majority of nurses in any military branch are working in a stateside medical facility the vast majority of the time. Your by far greatest opportunity to fly is going to be in the AF though.

    The flight nursing specialty definitely is more prevalent in the guard and reserves. There are only a handful of active duty flight nursing squadrons. However, that's still a lot more positions than the Navy has.

    Yes, CCATT and TCCET are mostly deployment teams. On active duty, you do it typically for 6 months on (flying),12 months off (working in an ICU) if your are in one of those UTCs. However, there are a handful of full-time CCATT positions for both active duty and guard/reserves.

    Honestly, you really want to think long and hard before going for an active duty full-time flying job of any kind. You'll be gone on TDYs or deployments all the time. I personally don't think it gives you a good work-life balance. The part-time nature of CCATT/TCCET is actually a blessing.

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