requirements for transport/flight nurse

[Brightidea]

I am preparing to apply to nursing school now and, upon discussion with a friend, made the comment that I am applying to both BS and AS degreed programs - because it seems the type of degree has little influence on (initial) job function, title, duties, pay, etc. My friend stated that she has a close friend who is a traveling RN. Suposedly this person said that you must have a BSN to be a transport or flight nurse. I have never seen this addressed in the AS vs BS discussions here - or anywhere! Do you know if this is true (i.e. must possess a bachelors degree to purse transport/flight nursing)? Thanks for any clarification you can provide me!

[NeoNurseTX, RN]

It depends on your hospital.

[Tweety, BSN, RN]

Are you talking helipcopter flight nurses....the one's who go to the scene and pick up patients and fly them in?

Usually they go more by the experience and reputation of the nurse. For example almost all of our fllight nurses where I work come from the trauma ER and they work their way up. Many of them have been ADN nurses.

Also there's another kind of flight nurse, those that travel with patients in planes...most of them come from a critical care/ER background, but there are varying degrees of flights. For example there might be a flight that carries a lady with a broken up back home from a Florida vacation. Or there might be a flight nurse traveling from one critical care unit to another.

Anyway, you should set your sights on getting ER and critical care experience, and you can do this with an ADN. You are not going to get a flight nurse job right out of school.

But as the poster says above, it probably depends on where you work whether or not they are requiring a BSN or an ADN.

Good luck!