Posted: 9/29/2009 6:05:27 AM EDT
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I'm currently taking pre-reqs for nursing school. I'm working as a nurse aide on a med-tele floor at a Level 1 trauma center(trying to get a tech job down in the ED). Once I get licensed I'd like to work in the ED.
I'm really interested in trying to get on with an air trauma unit and I'd like to hear from the flight RNs, medics, and pilots as to what the job is really all about. I'm assuming there is some real action to be seen and experienced but I'd like to know what a "normal" shift consists of. My local unit, STARflight, makes about 1800 runs annually. It seems they run more rescue/fire calls than medical ones. I've just started contemplating this and I plan on stopping by the heli-pad and seeing if they'll even talk to me about it. 
Thanks! 
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I have never worked rotatry wing but I have worked fixed wing transport. However, I know a bunch of people who either do work as paramedics or RNs on heliocopters or have done it. Two close friends of mine are doing it now.
One piece of advice: it is VERY dangerous. Google something like "medical heliocopter crashes or some variation of that. I have known members of THREE crews just in this local area that have crashed, killing everyone on board. We had a non-medical heliocopter crash just the other day here. |
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Most flight nurse positions require several years of experience in Critical Care settings (ER, ICU, etc). Most listings I saw were 3 years of experience. Many require you to also have your EMT or Paramedic as well. As 444 said, Aeromedicine is inherently more dangerous than your typical nursing job. It seems like every month an EMS helo goes down and very often all of the crew are killed. Additionally, you must meet a weight requirement since the helicopter generally is packed full otherwise and many services use smaller helicopters. I've seen 215-220ish lbs as limits so if you are larger than that you can use the time building experience to lose weight. Since I work as a Paramedic on a ground unit I can't really tell you much more about calls and stuff other than they usually show up when we call. We mostly call for trauma around here since the level 1 centers are all in downtown Dallas and are at least 20 minutes without traffic and God knows how long with. When I worked rural EMS we would call for heart attacks and strokes since out in the county it was 30 minutes to the tiny community hospital and an hour to the big one in places. ETA: Also, after reading the STARflight website, I noticed that they also do water/land rescue. Most of the services I am familiar with (East Texas/North Texas) only do pt care activities. |
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Got to love the MBB, eh? It's one of those helicopters that turned out to be a wonderful Medevac.
Book I read a few years ago was written by a flight nurse; I'll see if I can find the title in ISBN for your reference. Three things stand out in memory from that book. Okay, found it! "Trauma Junkie: Memoirs of an Emergency Flight Nurse" by Janice Hudson. # ISBN-10: 1552095738, # ISBN-13: 978-1552095737. First of all, the writer didn't want to be doing ER work or flight work all her life so while it was wonderful when she was young, she did eventually earn a Masters in surgical nursing (or was it anthesiology?) Secondly, there are times when the helicopter can't land at the accident but away which may require truck transport to the victim.....and even crossing county lines. Different counties, different medical rules. Finally, they practiced A LOT all the things that could go wrong with the bird, like in flight fires. ______________________________________ (We had nicknames for the various services. Lifeflight, for instance, was "Lifefright"!––the author, (wtte) Flight Nurse book) |
| For STARflight you need to be 220 lbs in uniform, pass flight physical fitness test, and physical agility test. You can find them here. |
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As I said in another post, my wife has been working as a flight paramedic for the last ten years. Most aeromedical programs in the US follow a one RN, one Critical Care Paramedic (CCEMT-P) crew formula in addition to the pilot. The rest for the most part are RN/RN.
For my wife's program to hire a Paramedic, you must have three years experience working as an EMT-P on the ground, and be certified as a CCEMT-P, National Registry, Pediatric ALS, Neonatal ALS, and the rest of the usual credentials. You then are interviewed for the position by the program medical director (a MD), the program director (a very experienced Flight RN), and two other fight medics or RNs. RNs have to have a minimum of three years hospital experience as a RN in a Critical Care ICU, Neonatal ICU, or Pediatric ICU. Then the same interview process as a Paramedic. Once hired, you work under the guidance of a RN preceptor for several months (kinda like an FTO), then you're signed off to work a shift. Yes it's dangerous, and my wife and I try not to talk about the possibility of the helicopter screwing into the ground. Getting good life insurance to cover such an event was difficult and expensive. Many of her coworkers and pilots are personal friends, and personally I think that sort of horrible incident would be more traumatic for me than an ITLOD death of one of my coworkers. These folks seem a whole lot more closely knit than a lot of LEOs I know. Without O/T, she makes ~70K a year. With overtime, a shitload of money! My wife says it's a hard, very specialized, career to get into. But she says she wouldn't possibly do anything else in the world. |
One of these was an aquaintance of mine. RIP
Medical Helicopter Crash |
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I have had two good friends that became flight medics within the last year (one has already quit).
A lot of the training they needed like the critical care paramedic was provided by the company AFTER they were hired. They were required to go through a orientation program of about a month. The critical care paramedic class is offered a couple times a year, here locally. They are also used on CCT ground ambulances. As a paramedic, you don't need that hospital time. Just street experience. FWIW: the one that quit, quit because he didn't think the money was worth the risk. He wasn't making any more doing that than he was making as a street paramedic. |
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Quoted: To the flight paramedics out there, how do you get those years in ICU or CCU? I haven't seen any postings that look like they'd be filled by paramedics. As far as I know, the hospital time is only required for the RNs. The flight medic positions I've seen generally require a medic cert (duh), 3 years of 911 experience, all of your alphabet certs (ACLS, PALS, etc), and many require CCEMT-P/FP-C certifications. Many services will sent you to CCEMT-P class after they hire you. From what I have heard, the FP-C test is HARD. The service I used to work for put on a class and out of 40 or so people who started, only 2 finished and passed the class. Granted it was poorly run, and one of the attendees was still in medic school.  |
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This.
Just about exactly how my wife described it. One of the PITA things is that just bout when she recerts in one of her "alphabet soup" certs like, PALS, another cert is about to expire, like her CCEMT-P card, or her state license. It alsways seems what when she's not working a shift, she's at recert class. Then there's all the helicopter specific training... egress training, survival training, crewmember resource training, NVG training... She hates me because my one and only "cert" never really expires - POST! |
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Quoted: My opinion, and that of many other EMS professionals, is that the 'Alphabet' certs are generally worthless and just a money generator for their respective organizations. ACLS, PALS, BTLS, etc all cover skills that are part of the Paramedic curriculum to begin with, and are covered CE topics as well. I only keep my CPR cert up to date because I teach CPR classes and because its required for National Registry recertification.This. Just about exactly how my wife described it. One of the PITA things is that just bout when she recerts in one of her "alphabet soup" certs like, PALS, another cert is about to expire, like her CCEMT-P card, or her state license. It alsways seems what when she's not working a shift, she's at recert class. Then there's all the helicopter specific training... egress training, survival training, crewmember resource training, NVG training... She hates me because my one and only "cert" never really expires - POST! |
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Quoted:
Quoted:
My opinion, and that of many other EMS professionals, is that the 'Alphabet' certs are generally worthless and just a money generator for their respective organizations. ACLS, PALS, BTLS, etc all cover skills that are part of the Paramedic curriculum to begin with, and are covered CE topics as well. I only keep my CPR cert up to date because I teach CPR classes and because its required for National Registry recertification.
This. Just about exactly how my wife described it. One of the PITA things is that just bout when she recerts in one of her "alphabet soup" certs like, PALS, another cert is about to expire, like her CCEMT-P card, or her state license. It alsways seems what when she's not working a shift, she's at recert class. Then there's all the helicopter specific training... egress training, survival training, crewmember resource training, NVG training... She hates me because my one and only "cert" never really expires - POST! My state required CPR and ACLS for a state EMT-P license (if they ever lapse the license is technically revoked) so I'll be keeping up on that. |