A Flight Nurse is a Registered Nurse who provides comprehensive prehospital and emergency or critical nursing care to all types of patients during aeromedical evacuation or rescue operations aboard helicopter and propeller aircraft or jet aircraft.

Role and Duties of a Flight Nurse

The Flight Nurse performs as a member of an aeromedical evacuation crew on helicopters and airplanes - providing for inflight management and nursing care for all types of patients. Other responsibilities include planning and preparing for aeromedical evacuation missions and preparing a patient care plan to facilitate patient care, comfort and safety.

Flight Nurses evaluate individual patient's inflight needs and request appropriate medications, supplies and equipment, providing continuing nursing care from origination to the destination facility. They act as liaisons between medical and operational aircrews and support personnel in order to promote patient comfort and to expedite the mission, and also initiate emergency treatment in the absence of a physician during inflight medical emergencies.

Training
Flight Nurses are generally Registered Nurse who also possess Emergency Medical Technician-Emergency Medical Techniciantraining and some degree of on-the-job experience in prehospital care, an Emergency Department (ED) or an Intensive Care Unit. Some bridge programs allow Nurses to take an accelerated course for EMT-Paramedic that helps them attain this qualification in less than one year. Some flight nurses have prior military training and experience, and some have various combinations of the above. Some Paramedics are also Licensed Vocational Nurses, but in many states they are generally not considered flight nurses since LVNs can only work as nurses under the supervision of an RN or a physician and cannot legally delegate authority over paramedics.

Civilian Flight Nurses
Civilian Flight Nurses work for hospitals, Federal, State, and Local governments, privatemedical evacuation firms, fire departments, and other agencies.

Aircraft and Equipment
Flight Nurses can work aboard either helicopters or airplanes.

Military Flight Nurses
The military flight Nurse performs as a member of the aeromedical evacuation crew, and functions as the senior medical member of the aeromedical evacuation team on Continental United States (CONUS), intra-theater and inter-theater flights - providing for inflight management and nursing care for all types of patients. Other responsibilities include planing and preparing for aeromedical evacuation missions and preparing a patient positioning plan to facilitate patient care, comfort and safety.

Flight Nurses evaluate individual patient's inflight needs and request appropriate medications, supplies and equipment, providing continuing nursing care from originating to destination facility. They act as liaison between medical and operational aircrews and support personnel in order to promote patient comfort and to expedite the mission, and also initiate emergency treatment in the absence of a physician for inflight medical emergencies.