PHTLS/ITLS, and NRP education help

[KG MSN RN CCRN CEN, MSN, RN]

Hello,

I am an ER nurse in southern Ohio and am trying to build up my resume and certifications to hopefully apply for a flight nurse job. I have been trying to find PHTLS/ITLS and NRP.  The problem is, no matter how hard I look or search on the internet, I cannot fond any of these courses being offered near me. The only things I have found have been on 100% online certification, which I don’t trust. My current employer does not offer either of these courses because we do not have units that deal with neonates and they don’t offer anything pre-hospital based. I even looked for offerings for NRP through our large children’s hospital and they don’t have any offerings for NRP either.  How do you all go about trying to find education like this?

[chare]

NRP course information can be found on the NRP Healthstream site.  After completion of the online portion you can return to the site and locate/sign up for the skills check off portion.  The skills check off is going to be difficult to find.  As many hospitals now conduct life support training online, with only the skills check off in person, you might as about that, rather than the entire course. 

All NAEMT course information can be found on their Locate a Course site.  In addition to PHTLS you might find the Emergency Pediatric Course helpful.  

ITLS, as well as pediatric ITLS course information can be found on their find a course site.

A few other courses/options to consider.  The American Association of Pediatricians sponsors a prehospital course called Pediatric Education for Prehospital Professionals.  Advanced Trauma Care for Nurses (ATCN) is offered concurrently with advanced trauma life support (ATLS).  If you are unable to find an ATCN course, a trauma center near you offering ATLS might allow you to audit the course in exchange for serving as a victim.  

Lastly, if you haven't taken either Trauma Nursing Core Course or Emergency Nursing Pediatric Course, you might consider these.

Best wishes.

 

[MD married to RN]

Hello KG:

You are right; there is a dearth of educational opportunities in near southern Ohio. Closest I found was in MI:

https://www.traumanurses.org/education/atcn-program/atcn-events-united-states?id=394?state=MI

Not sure if this helps. Since you mention your resume, may a gently offer the following suggestion:

Your site name here is KG MSN RN CCRN CEN MSN RN. MSN and RN are listed twice. This would not look good on a resume. The MSN and RN are appropriately listed as degree first (yours forever) then license (needs regular renewal) then merit badges listed alphabetically. Adding the MSN and RN may just be a typo or may imply that you feel you do not have enough letters after your name. Either way, consider correcting this.

Finally, flight nursing looks exciting. I hope you have spoken to lots of flight nurses about their choice of career. Of the top of my head here are some things to consider against flight nursing:

1. High mortality: Copters crash with an incidence of 5/100,000 flights.

2. Skills: If flight becomes your full time gig and not at a busy center, you may rapidly lose your skills.

3. Respect: There is often limited respect of your field by hospital staff.

4. Do no harm: There is a tendency to do more than is required with risks to the patient e.g. I know a specific flight nurse who did 5 crics in just a couple years. This is more than most EM docs do in a career.

https://www.wanderly.us/blog/flight-nursing/#:~:text=Cons of being a flight nurse&text=Even if the patient is,dopamine in the IV pump.

[KG MSN RN CCRN CEN, MSN, RN]

It must be the way my account is set up. My username lists all of my correct credentials in order, but another section in the profile also made me choose my highest degree and license which it looks like they added that to the end of my username. That would be my guess as to why it lists it twice. I’ll have to try to figure out how to fix it. 

I understand your listed concerns, as safety culture would be a big one for me. There are two flight programs near me, one being a large hospital based program and the other is a private company owned. Neither of which have has crashes/fatalities/injuries since their start. I am currently also in the process of trying to do a ride along. This is tough due to one company not having enough room, and the other being restricted due to COVID restrictions. 

I plan to stay employed on my current hospital job as well, just to also keep up on my skills in the ER; although both flight jobs I’m looking at are quite busy bases. 

I’m not too concerned for the respect aspect. If others don’t respect me, then so be it. I won’t lose sleep at night as I know what I am capable of. 

I feel my approach would be simple enough to keep the pts stable With minimal interventions and procedures unless absolutely needed to perform some type of procedure like that. 

[NICU Guy, BSN, RN]

On 3/18/2021 at 8:17 AM, KG MSN RN CCRN CEN said:

I even looked for offerings for NRP through our large children’s hospital and they don’t have any offerings for NRP either. 

Children's hospitals have NICUs which means they have to offer NRP to their NICU nurses. Call the NICU educator at the Children's hospital for dates and times for the skills checkoff.