How to Become a Careflight Nurse
A care flight nurse is traditionally a highly trained nurse that provides comprehensive in-flight management and emergency care to all types of patients, mostly in critical conditions, during an aero-medical evacuation. These nurses have more experience in intensive care, critical care and advanced life support. Mostly, care flight nurses are paired with medical emergency teams that rush to disaster sites like vehicular accidents or natural calamities like earthquakes, to treat the patients while being transported to the hospital or nearest healthcare facility through helicopter, propeller aircraft or jet aircraft.
Care flight nursing started in New South Wales, Australia, when a group of doctors decided to create a team of aero-medics for the helicopter evacuation of the patients for whom long distance travel could prove fatal.
Instructions
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1
Be a registered nurse
If you want to become a care flight nurse, start with A.A or B.A in nursing, because care flight nurses are professional nurses with more experience in critical care. Remember, the nurses who become care flight nurses are the top of critical care field. Even a simple A.A or B.A nurse can also join the team of aero-medics, but experience in critical care will help you become a successful care flight nurse. -
2
Learn about the job description of a care flight nurse
Learn more about the job description and responsibilities of a care flight nurse. You can also contact the basic care flight unit in Australia to learn more information about this field. -
3
Specialize in the field of critical care
Get advanced training in the field of critical care and become a successful care flight nurse. Some of the areas you need to specialize in include, Basic and Advance Cardiac Life Support, Pediatric Advance Life Support and Trauma Life Support. Training of a care flight nurse is intensive and tough, involving several hours both in-flight and on the field. Training may take several years, but there are also some on-job specialization programmes designed to train professional care flight nurses. -
4
Improve your customer service and communication skills
Critical care nurses mostly work in extreme pressure situations, and this is the reason that besides training, you also need a level of calm deliberation, decision making skills and customer service techniques to become a successful care flight nurse. -
5
Join a professional aero-medical group
Drop your CV/ resume at all the major air ambulance organizations and join a professional air-medical group. The average pay of a care flight nurse is higher than that of a critical care nurse.
