What is the best branch for helicopter flight nursing?

[Star_Couch]

I've heard of the long-distance fixed wing transports in the Air Force, but am asking specifically about helicopter transport, MEDEVAC, and critical care.

[OUxPhys, BSN, RN]

Army would be my guess. Maybe Navy?

[jfratian, DNP, RN, CRNA]

The term 'flight nursing' is very generic and means something far different in the military vs. civilian sector. Civilians have a one-size fits-all approach for staffing aircraft. It's generally an experienced ICU nurse and an EMT-B or EMT-P...possibly an RT is there too. That team does all manner of transport for all manner of patients. The military has many different medical evac teams for many different situations.

The Air Force does the vast majority of fixed wing medical transport, and I dare say vast majority of medical transport period. We have flight nursing, which is long-distance stable patients (team is EMTs and med-surg RNs). We also have CCATT (1 ICU MD, 1 RT, and 1 ICU RN), which is for long distance unstable patients (vents, vasopressors, etc). We have rotary wing transport, called TACIT (CRNA, ER RN), that handles some short distance evac.

However, most point of injury med evac is handled by enlisted Air Force pararescuemen (PJs) and combat rescue officers (CROs)...not nurses. They are kind of like medical special forces.

So, when you say you want 'helicopter nursing,' what do you mean? Do you want to do 30 min transports to grab traumas from point of injury sites in hot zones (PJs)? Do you want to do intermediate distances moving casualties to definitive surgical care (TACIT)?