Question about ambulatory nurses?

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Considering some recent discussions and behavior I've seen from other pre-meds, I'm looking at some other options since right now like I said before is the best time to do it because I'm just doing general education.

I decided I'm going to take the EMT basic course that's offered at the college here because a friend of mine at work brought up how he'd like to do it too and said he would do it with me, so either way I'm going to have my EMT basic certification, and maybe I'll go for Paramedic after I meet the requirements, who knows. Mainly, I still want to get a degree whether I stay pre-med or not, and nursing still holds an interest for me but the main thing I'd be interested in is some sort of specialized nursing like ambulatory, flight, etc.

Does anyone have some info on ambulatory nurses? I know that's a RN specialty because my friend who's an EMT in southern California says each ambulance has a nurse assigned to it in order to administer injections, medicine, etc. since I guess EMT basics don't do that, and that would be the perfect type of nurse for what I want to do.

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Specializes in Operating Room.

Would that be a flight nurse?

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I'm not sure? Would they call the specialty flight nurse even if it was for a regular ambulance and not an air ambulance?

I wouldn't mind getting some information on being a flight nurse, but I think it may be something different, I'm not the RN though so I don't know. :) I just assumed that they would be called something like ambulatory RN, my friend who has a nurse ride with his ambulance works in a regular one, not a chopper, that's about all I have to go off of.

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Specializes in Urgent Care.

Ambulatory is actually clinic work, where the patients " walk in". I work Urgent Care and it is considered ambulatory.

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Specializes in med/surg, telemetry, IV therapy, mgmt.

here are some links for you to explore these two areas of nursing:

http://www.nurseweek.com/5min/werlin.asp - 5 minutes with peter werlin, on flight nursing

http://southflorida.sun-sentinel.com/careers/vitalsigns/pfold2000/x19flitnrs.htm - flying over florida: the life of a flight nurse - article on flight nursing

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/medicalnews.php?newsid=11685 - news about the masters degree specialty in flight nursing offered by case western reserve university in cleveland, ohio.

http://www.aaacn.org/cgi-bin/webobjects/aaacnmain.woa/1/wa/viewsection?s_id=1073743905&wosid=iaov7igcdgul23y7os77t15n3fi - halfway down the page is an explanation of what ambulatory nursing is

http://www.nysna.org/programs/nai/practice/positions/position5_04.htm - more on ambulatory nursing

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I use to work at an ambulatory surgery center...which is a day surgery clinic.

I agree with Fun, I think you are looking for a flight nurse.:)

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Ok, thanks for all the responses and dropping the links guys, I'll check them out tomorrow since I'm about to go to sleep. :)

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Specializes in LTC.

I know that in Minnesota, ambulance crews are an EMT-basic and paramedic team. The paramedic has standing orders that allow them to administer certian medications in certian situations. I believe that they also are in contact with the hospital, so they can get orders from a doctor as well.

I believe that EMT basic has standing orders for several things as well such as oral glucose.

Once you get into the EMT program, you'll get a really good grasp of the field. When I took my CPR pre-req for nursing all of my instructors were paramedics/emt-basics, and they were just awesome teachers. Always willing to answer questions and tell stories. I'm sure that they can answer any questions you have about the roles of emergency care workers.

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Right on, that sounds encouraging!

The only thing I'm wondering about is the EMT basic course at the local college is state certified but I noticed that AMR only hires nationally certified EMTs, and I'm not sure if the EMT basic course here is nationally certified or if it needs to be. I'm not sure if it's just a second exam I take.

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Oh this is so confusing, agghhh!! Is anyone here presently or formerly an EMT who could help me out on this? I'm trying to find out if the EMT course at my college qualifies as a "real" one as my friend in southern Cali told me to look for, because he said there are both county and nationally certified courses. From what I've been able to dig up, the EMT course at my college is certified by the State of California (I think) because its approved by the Northern California Emergency Medical Services and they list in their FAQs in response to a "Where is my EMT certification valid?" that it's valid anywhere in the state of California....but I have no clue on whether it's nationally certified, or if that doesn't matter and nationally certified comes from taking the exam?

I'm so confused. *smacks head against wall*

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Specializes in med/surg, telemetry, IV therapy, mgmt.

here is the web site of the national registry of emergency medical technicians which is the organization that administrates the national test to certify emts.

http://www.nremt.org/about/nremt_news.asp

i did a search of the california code of regulations as well as some searching on the california department of consumer affairs web site and could not find anything about california licensure of emt's. unless there is someone who knows specifically about this in california i suspect that the information you are looking for is done on a county by county basis. so, whatever county you live in within california, you should try doing an internet search for "_____ county, california, certification (or, accreditation) of emts" and see what you come up with. not knowing where you are i found the following link for orange county, california ems accreditation to practice emt:

http://www.ochealthinfo.com/docs/emstreatguide/a430.pdf

some time ago i had been trying to find information on licensing of massage therapists in california since in the state of ohio where i originally lived, this is a profession that requires taking a state board exam and becoming licensed. i talked with several massage therapists here in california and they told me that there is no state licensing for their profession. they must be certified to practice by each city or county where they have set up their practices. i'm thinking that the same thing is done for emts in california as well. this is why i think you have to contact the city or county where you live to get the information you are looking for. good luck.

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here is the web site of the national registry of emergency medical technicians which is the organization that administrates the national test to certify emts.

http://www.nremt.org/about/nremt_news.asp

i did a search of the california code of regulations as well as some searching on the california department of consumer affairs web site and could not find anything about california licensure of emt's. unless there is someone who knows specifically about this in california i suspect that the information you are looking for is done on a county by county basis. so, whatever county you live in within california, you should try doing an internet search for "_____ county, california, certification (or, accreditation) of emts" and see what you come up with. not knowing where you are i found the following link for orange county, california ems accreditation to practice emt:

http://www.ochealthinfo.com/docs/emstreatguide/a430.pdf

some time ago i had been trying to find information on licensing of massage therapists in california since in the state of ohio where i originally lived, this is a profession that requires taking a state board exam and becoming licensed. i talked with several massage therapists here in california and they told me that there is no state licensing for their profession. they must be certified to practice by each city or county where they have set up their practices. i'm thinking that the same thing is done for emts in california as well. this is why i think you have to contact the city or county where you live to get the information you are looking for. good luck.

thanks for looking it up day, yeah i visited the nremt web site but couldn't exactly find what i was looking for. it sounds like my friend needs to be more specific on finding a nationally certified course versus a county certified one...it's starting to make more sense if there isn't an actual state license for it and it's county by county, hrm. i wish i could get in touch with him more, he's only on every millenium on msn. i'll keep searching though, thanks for the help.

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