Flight Nursing Degree Programs: Get Your Career to Take Off

Education and Training Required To Become a Flight Nurse

To become a flight nurse, you must be certified as an RN and trained for advanced life support, intensive care, and emergency nursing.You may also be required to pursue specialized certifications such as the Certified Flight Registered Nurse or the Certified Emergency Nurse credential.

If you're just starting, you can get your four-year bachelor of science in nursing (BSN) from an online degree program or a traditional college or university. Another option for nurses with some training is the RN to BSN degree or the LPN (licensed practical nurse) to BSN degree. These degree programs in flight nursing give you the critical care skills you need while capitalizing on what you already know.

Typical Characteristics of a Flight Nurse

Flight nurses must be able to deal with the unpredictable, since they may be responsible for responding to trauma or treating patients on-scene at accidents. Flight nurses make decisions quickly and perform well in high-pressure situations.

Although you'll be communicating with a doctor on the ground, you may be the only medical personnel on the flight, so you'll need to be able to take charge and work independently.

High Demand for Flight Nurses

While there's no specific data for flight nurses, The Bureau of Labor Statistics says RN jobs should grow at a rate of 22 percent through 2018. Nationwide, registered nurses earned a median annual salary of $62,450 in 2008. Nurses with advanced training such as the flight nursing degree programs should have excellent job prospects.

While most of us hope we'll never need a flight nurse, if we did, we'd want there to be people able and willing to take on such an intense and imperative job. Are you one of them?