How to Become a Flight Nurse
Do you get excited by constant change and the rush of adrenaline? Are you drawn to critical care and emergency care in nursing? Do you thrive in environments with high levels of autonomy and critical thinking? If so, flight nursing may be the career for you.
We’ll show you how to become a flight nurse, including what they do, where they work, and what type of education you’ll need.
What Is a Flight Nurse?
A flight nurse is a registered nurse (RN) who is specially trained to care for patients during transportation in a helicopter or airplane. They are also called transport nurses. They work alongside paramedics and physicians to safely attend to patient’s medical needs during aircraft transportation.
What Does a Flight Nurse Do?
A flight nurse cares for patients being transported from one location to the next and have many of the same responsibilities as other registered nurses. They often provide acute care to patients, like an emergency room or critical care nurse would, implementing various interventions to keep their patient stable. The difference is that flight nurses are in the air, working in small teams, and have limited resources.
Sometimes a patient is being transferred to a different hospital, such as when their acuity changes and they need a higher level of care. In these instances, the nurse receives report on the patient from the hospital or facility nurse.
Other times, the flight nurse is rescuing a patient from a disaster or major injury and transporting them directly to the hospital or facility for care. In these instances, the nurse triages the patient (sometimes groups of patients) to determine the most appropriate level of care. As you may have guessed, this scenario can come with many more unknowns and challenges.
When they are not caring for patients, they are preparing the aircraft by checking expiration dates of medications and restocking items.
Here are some examples of flight nursing duties:
- Administering medications
- Performing CPR and first aid
- Stabilizing patients
- Inserting IVs and administering fluids
- Providing manual ventilation and oxygen therapy
- Stocking supplies
- Checking aircraft and equipment
What Are Flight Nurse Education Requirements?
When thinking about how to become a flight nurse, you may wonder about the type of flight nurse training and education you’ll need. It all starts with enrolling in nursing school.
1. Get your nursing degree. Your first step in flight nurse requirements is to become a RN. You have many options to do this, but it comes down to pursuing either an associate degree in nursing (ADN) or bachelor’s of science in nursing (BSN) degree.
2. Pass the NCLEX. After you complete nursing school, you’ll have to take a national licensure exam, the NCLEX-RN, to obtain your nursing license.
3. Gain nursing experience. Because this area of nursing involves treating patients who need critical care, it’s likely that flight nursing employers will request RNs have three to five years of experience in trauma, the ICU, or the ER.
4. Get your flight nurse certification. Employers may tend to prefer to hire those who have a flight nursing certification along with acute care nursing experience. The Board of Certification for Emergency Nursing (BCEN) offers a Certified Flight Registered Nurse (CFRN) certification.
Registered nurses with an active, unencumbered license are eligible to take this certification. It’s recommended to have two years of flight nursing before acquiring the certification, though it’s not required. The certification is active for four years before renewal is required.
For more insight into what’s required for these jobs, check out these samples of a flight nurse resume and flight nurse cover letter.
What Are Good Flight Nurse Skills to Develop?
Part of learning how to become a flight nurse includes honing your clinical skills. Because you’ll be working in smaller teams with limited resources, you need to be competent, confident, and resourceful. Flight nurses excel with these skills:
- Critical thinking
- Ventilator training and competence
- Neonatal resuscitation
- Strong leadership
- Pediatric advanced life support (PALS)
- Excellent communication
- Triage and trauma care
How Long Does It Take to Become a Flight Nurse?
You can expect to spend two to four years earning your RN license, depending on the route you take (ADN vs. BSN). When you add in your nursing experience and flight nursing training, you’re looking at about nine years to become a flight nurse.
Where Can a Flight Nurse Work?
There are two main types of flight nurses: civilian or military.
Civilian flight nurse: These nurses can work for private or public hospitals, trauma centers, independent medical transport companies, search and rescue agencies, fire departments, and clinics.
Military flight nurse: These nurses work for the military and are typically in the Air Force.
Flight Nurse vs. Critical Care Nurse
One difference between flight nursing and critical care nursing is that a flight nurse may care for a patient of any age, with any condition. Critical care units are usually designed to care for a specific population: newborns in a neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) or adults in a surgical intensive care unit (SICU). Because flight nurses can respond to disasters, they may not always know who their patient will be, what conditions they have, or what state they will be in.
How Much Do Flight Nurses Make?
The average flight nurse salary is around $94,800 per year. Your salary is determined by a number of factors including years of experience, location, employer, and your level of education.
Ready to Take Your Nursing Career Higher?
You’ve learned how to become a flight nurse — now you’re ready to make it happen. Need to gain critical care or emergency room experience? Intelycare can help match you with the kinds of nursing jobs you’re interested in.