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133. Replay of Flight Nursing FAQs · The Shift Podcast

0:00
Welcome to frontline static we will get to hear interviews with
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some of my clients journeys of getting into flight and how they
0:05
utilize coaching to help them create success of getting hired
0:08
with less confusion and more ease.
0:10
Make your dream a reality of getting into flight listen in as
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you hear some of the stories of the people getting there and
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come join the flight prep group. Welcome to episode 121 of how to
0:19
become a flight nurse podcast. I thought this week I would
0:23
change it up a little bit and bring you a most commonly
0:27
questions asked of how to get into flight nursing.
0:31
These are questions that I get asked on the daily all the time
0:35
as I do webinars, as I do trainings.
0:37
These are the same questions that you guys asked me.
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So I wanted to kind of go through the common ones that I
0:44
get from you guys and give you the answers.
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And hopefully this will clear up some confusion that you guys
0:51
might have and help you guys get really clear about how to get to
0:57
flight and how to start taking action on it now.
1:00
And hopefully it motivates you to start taking action on it
1:03
now. OK, one thing that I want to say
1:05
before we get started is that you don't have to wait to feel
1:07
ready. I see tons of people spend lots
1:10
of time working all these different departments working
1:13
ERICU, trying to gain all the time and experience because they
1:18
think that time and experience and certifications are going to
1:21
have them feel more confident. And here's the thing, you can be
1:25
doing critical care for 30 years and have all the certifications
1:28
at the end of the year name and that does not create confidence.
1:31
So I want to offer you that imposter syndrome is doubt is is
1:36
required where you're going and you're never going to be 100%
1:40
confident. So really inside my program, I'm
1:42
going to teach you how to have doubt and take action anyway
1:45
because this will be required of you on critical calls where
1:51
you're nervous about patients and you're going to be able to
1:54
take doubt with you and still act confidently and be
1:57
successful in transporting that patient.
2:00
So let's let's dive right in one the most common question I get
2:06
asked are what are the requirements?
2:07
So the requirements to get into flight nursing in the United
2:10
States is 3 years ER or ICU experience.
2:13
Now that doesn't matter. It does not need to be a level 1
2:17
trauma. They're looking for ER and ICU
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nurses anywhere from critical access centers to rural
2:24
community hospitals, small bed royal community hospitals all
2:28
the way to level 1. They are not just seeking out
2:30
level 1 experience. The reason for this is because a
2:35
critical access rural Bed ERICU nurse is very different than a
2:39
level 1 trauma nurse. In a rural bed ERICU, you have
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to be super resourceful. You don't always have a
2:46
physician. You don't always have the
2:47
resources or the machinery that you need or even the manpower or
2:53
staffing that you need. So you have to be super
2:55
resourceful. It creates a nurse who knows how
2:57
to always get what they want and what they need in in times when
3:01
they don't have everything. Then you can Fast forward all
3:05
the way to a level trauma nurse. That creates a very different
3:08
nurse, a level 1 trauma nurse because you have a lot of
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specialties, you have residents, you see a lot of patient
3:13
diagnosis, so you're exposed to a lot of different things on
3:18
that end, but one is not better than the other.
3:20
When you are trying to get into flight nursing, what they're
3:24
looking for are leaders. They're looking for who you are,
3:27
what you value, and the team player you are.
3:29
So really what I help you highlight is going above and
3:33
beyond your staff position. Where have you stepped up in
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leadership roles? So this is what flight companies
3:38
are looking for. It does not matter if it is a
3:41
rural bed, ERICU or anywhere from a level 1.
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I came from a small Community Hospital.
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I don't think we were even a level.
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Maybe we were a Level 3 or 4 ICU.
3:52
But I sat in a lot of interviews and we had a level 1 trauma in
3:56
the city that I flew out of. And so we interviewed a level 1,
3:59
a lot of level 1 trauma nurses, nurses, but we didn't always
4:02
necessarily go with those candidates.
4:04
So that is not the only thing that they're looking for.
4:07
So don't go chasing level 1 trauma experience and
4:11
experiences and departments at those hospitals.
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They're looking at everything in between.
4:15
One thing that I want to offer for you is to not jump around
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to, I see a lot of nurses at the one to two year mark of working
4:22
ERICU get a little bit comfortable and then they think,
4:24
well, I should go out and get all this experience because
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that's what flight companies are looking for.
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So they change from either ER to ICU for ICU to ER.
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And this is the worst thing that you can do for yourself.
4:34
You want to stay put, especially as you start to get comfortable
4:37
in your department because that's where you can start to
4:40
grow leadership qualities. That's where you can start to
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step into some of these roles like charge nurse, RT leaders,
4:47
precepting, having nursing students, being on committees.
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This is the candidates that flight companies are looking
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for. So you want to stay put and you
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want to stay. Try to stay in one department.
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The second most common question that I get asked is, is ER
5:01
better or is ICU better? And I always steer people in the
5:04
direction of working the department that you are the most
5:07
interested in. So for me, I was super
5:10
interested in ICUI, liked advanced hemodynamics.
5:13
I liked being able to do all of the pressors and all of the
5:16
drugs and ventilator management. And so I went into the ICU.
5:21
And I always say, choose the department that you're most
5:24
interested in because the one you're most interested in,
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that's where your critical thinking skills are going to
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grow. Now, if you choose a department
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that you think is going to make you look better, might not
5:33
always be the most interesting. And here's the thing about shift
5:35
work. You guys all know this is we
5:37
spend more time at work, work with do with our coworkers and
5:42
with the jobs that we're doing then with our friends and family
5:44
at home. So it's really important to be
5:46
interested in the department that you're working now.
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It also doesn't matter what specialty of ERICU.
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This could be a pediatric ERICU, this could be a burn ICU, this
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could be any kind of specialty of ERICU, but it does require
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critical care experience. I do get asked if step down unit
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experience is is is it counts towards your time and experience
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and it does not. So if you are working step down,
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even if you have vents in your step down unit, we want to get
6:19
you into a critical care as soon as possible because they are
6:23
you. They're not going to count that.
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You want to clock your time towards critical care units.
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Totally. And also I have people ask me,
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can I work float pool? If it's a float pool, critical
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care, great. You're just going into ERS, ice
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use that counts. But if you're float pool and you
6:39
do Med surge, we want to get you into critical care as soon as
6:42
possible so that we can count all that time.
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Now, there are different ways that we can count that time.
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If you do have step down experience or float pool and you
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were floated to a lot of ERS and ice use, this is where we're
6:54
going to want to vamp this up on your flight resume and showcase
6:59
that we might be able to count that time.
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That's how I've helped some other members get hired at the 2
7:03
1/2 year mark. And most recently I just helped
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someone get hired at the one year mark who did six years OR
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and float full time. So this really matters what your
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resume looks like, how you talk about it, how you explain it.
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So I really help you do that inside my programs as well.
7:18
OK, so that's requirements, certifications.
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Oh, I'm sorry, we didn't talk about certifications.
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We talked about ERICU level 1 trauma experience.
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The next common question I get asked is do I need any
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certifications? And the answer is no.
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A lot of people come to me and they're like, well I've heard
7:34
that you do need these certifications.
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And here's the reason why you still hear this is because when
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I tried to get into flight 10 years ago, it was required.
7:41
You did have to have the CCRN or the CEN and I had the CCRN going
7:46
into it but they are moving away from that because it is a new
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Cames requirement for nurses to have the CFRN within one to two
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years of being hired with flight companies depending on the
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flight company you get hired with.
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So I highly recommend, do not get that before because your
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flight company is going to pay for your resources, your books,
8:04
and your test. Unless you are a radically great
8:08
test taker, you can do it before because there's no mandatory
8:11
hours that you have to be working as a flight nurse before
8:13
you can take it. But I always recommend waiting.
8:16
I'm a terrible test taker. It took me a lot of time, three
8:19
times to pass the CCRN and took me 8 times to pass the CFRN and
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I was a really good flight nurse.
8:25
So as everybody knows, certifications do not mean
8:30
you're good at that job or you're good enough at that job
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or not. It's just a certification and I
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am not a good test taker so I know it takes me a multiple
8:38
times to pass a test and I ended up getting a tutor which ended
8:41
up creating success for me in passing the CFRM eventually.
8:45
So no certifications are needed. If you do want to work at the
8:49
CCEN or the CCRM into your plan because you are a great test
8:54
taker or you want the knowledge for yourself, that is OK.
8:57
But I also highly recommend if you're at the two year mark,
9:00
don't even spend time with that anymore.
9:02
At the two year mark of working ERICU, that's when you want to
9:05
start start securing interviews and you want to start prepping
9:09
for flight interviews specifically.
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I take you through exactly how to be doing that.
9:12
In my program. I think a lot of people don't
9:15
really know how to prep for flight interviews.
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All they do is they study a bunch of material, maybe there's
9:19
CCRN or CN material and they're studying all the clinical stuff
9:24
for that. And that is not how you want to
9:25
prepare for flight interviews. So inside my program, I really
9:29
teach you there's two parts actually three parts to a flight
9:31
interview you. One is usually a critical care
9:34
test to our psychosocial questions where they're wanting
9:36
to really get to know you, who you are, what you value in the
9:38
team player you are. And then the third really key
9:41
part of a lot of interviews, sometimes you have to pass this
9:43
off 1st is case scenarios and they're going to ask you to
9:47
verbalize them. So I take you through a
9:48
systematic process that I've created inside my program that
9:52
helps you walk through and verbalize any case scenario that
9:55
they give you. And then I teach you clinic
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minimally, clinically, what you need to know going into it as
10:01
far as RSI, drugs, intubation and ventilators.
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I so really preparing for flight interviews is not the same as
10:11
preparing for critical care interviews.
10:12
So I highly recommend doing that at the two year mark.
10:15
I teach you all of that inside the flight prep Academy.
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If you are at the two year mark and starting to prepare, I
10:22
recommend at the two year mark because I really believe that
10:28
what gets you hired into flight is a three-step process and
10:32
that's mapping out your plan as soon as you know that you want
10:35
it. So for some people that's as
10:37
early as nursing school. I knew I wanted flight as early
10:40
as nursing school. So because of that, I've created
10:42
entire pathway for nursing students, post grad nursing
10:46
students, non critical care nurses and critical care nurses.
10:51
What you should be working on whenever you're starting and
10:54
whenever you decide that you want flight, what includes in
10:57
everybody's plan is having a mapped out plan from where
11:00
you're starting all the way to the end.
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So let's say, for example, you're starting a nursing school
11:03
because you know you want flight, having your entire plan
11:06
mapped out. And I'm going to talk about that
11:08
towards the end of this podcast episode, how you can start doing
11:11
that. And then the second part of this
11:14
step is doing ride alongs and making connections with flight
11:17
companies. A lot of people think that they
11:19
they can't start doing this until right before applying.
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No, you want to be doing this right away, even as a nursing
11:24
student. In fact, I recommend doing 6 to
11:26
8 a year. I teach you how to start doing
11:28
them and how to start securing them inside my program.
11:31
This is just a way to have a deeper connection with them, for
11:34
them to get to know you and you to get to know them and for them
11:37
to just have your name out there so that they know that this is
11:40
something that you're working towards.
11:42
And eventually these ride alongs, are they going to be the
11:44
thing that's going to get you an interview?
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And most of the people who are in my program, they're getting
11:50
interviews before the three-year mark.
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So this is really important. Get your name out there, have
11:55
them get to know you and you kind of get to know them.
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Plus you get a sit in that helicopter seat.
12:00
Another common question that I get asked is what is the pay
12:05
like? This is such a loaded question
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because it's just like nursing, no matter where you go, where
12:10
you live, what state you work out of, what hospital depends on
12:14
how much you make. So it's different everywhere.
12:18
It's all about location, it's all about the hospital system
12:21
you're working for. So same as hospital nursing, the
12:24
pay is going to be different depending on all of those
12:26
things. So with flight nursing, it's
12:30
going to be the same. It's going to be dependent on
12:32
the company where you live and where you fly out of.
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For me, I doubled my pay when I went to flight nursing and
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that's simply because most flight nurse companies end up
12:43
paying overtime and double time. And because most of the shifts
12:49
are 24 hour shifts, which I'm going to talk about next with
12:51
the what the shifts look like. But because they're 24 hour
12:55
shifts or sometimes more, you usually get time and a half and
12:58
double time. And then anytime that you pick
13:00
up after that is usually time and 1/2 or double time.
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The company I worked for, it was double time anything that we
13:05
picked up after or 48 hours which was 2 shifts.
13:08
So the pay is usually pretty significant.
13:13
A lot of people get nervous about this.
13:14
A lot of people hear that it is less pay and it is less pay if
13:18
you look at it hourly. So I made less hourly when I
13:21
went into flight then when I worked at the hospital.
13:24
But because I worked above and beyond the 12 hour shifts and I
13:27
worked 24, I got overtime and double time which increased my
13:31
pay a lot. So pay is a question that
13:34
concerns a lot of people. I just really asked what ioffer
13:38
for you guys to do is as you're doing right along, start asking
13:41
some of these questions. What's the pay like at this
13:43
company? Start asking around.
13:45
This is why right alongs and making connections is so
13:47
important because you get to ask these questions.
13:49
I also help every single person inside the flight private
13:53
Academy negotiate their offer and I really ask everyone an
13:57
offer for them to negotiate their offer.
13:59
Even if they company comes back and says no, negotiate your pay
14:02
because most of the time they are going to come back and give
14:05
you more money. So that's the question about
14:08
pay. Was the other one schedule?
14:11
Schedule is another common question that I get asked and it
14:13
really depends again on the base and the company you're working
14:16
for. So there's hospital based
14:18
companies, meaning that you fly for the hospital and your
14:21
employee of the hospital. Most of those are 12 hour
14:24
shifts, 3 twelves, but I do see some of them 24.
14:28
I have helped people recently get hired too as well who worked
14:30
for hospital based companies that they do 124 hour shift in
14:33
two twelves. And I love the idea of hospital
14:36
companies. I've always been attracted to it
14:38
because for most of them, your employee of the hospital, you
14:42
get a little bit higher repay because you're an employee, but
14:45
also you get to around and you get to fill in and what's the
14:51
word? Maybe not triage impact in
14:53
critical care units or anywhere in the hospital.
14:55
So it's like you're like, oh, I haven't done an IV in a while.
14:58
You can go down in the ER, do some Ivs and impacts since
15:00
you're an employee of the hospital or you're like, oh, I
15:03
really want to get my hands on with the balloon pump.
15:05
You can go and work with some balloon pump.
15:06
So that is the benefit of being a hospital based flight nurse.
15:14
So hospital based flight nurses, that's what their schedule
15:16
usually looks like, 1224 hour shifts.
15:19
If you're working for a private air ambulance, which is more
15:21
common where you're not a hospital based system, you're
15:25
usually 24 hour shifts. I worked 24 hour shifts.
15:28
I actually really loved 24 hours.
15:30
I didn't know if I would, but I loved it.
15:33
I felt like going from 7 to 8 shifts a month instead of
15:37
working 12 was a huge difference for me and my family.
15:41
I had four small kids under the age, I think my oldest may have
15:45
been 12 or 13 at the time. So it really worked well for me.
15:48
My schedule looked like 124 on and then I had 124 off in
15:52
between and then worked my second 24 hour on and then had
15:55
five days off in a row. And that was just really, really
15:58
nice because I felt like I won the lottery.
16:01
I felt like I had so much time to spend with my kids having
16:04
five days off in a row. And often when you're doing
16:07
hospital nursing and you're working your 12 hour shift,
16:09
you're just not getting five days off in a row unless you
16:11
stack them. So I really loved that A lot of
16:14
the nurses that I worked with had second job, sometimes 3, and
16:17
I actually had so much time I decided to get my BSN and go
16:20
back to school. So that leads me to the other
16:23
question which is, is a BSN required?
16:28
And it is not most like companies in the United States
16:30
only require your ADNI. Just went and got my BSN because
16:33
I didn't know if I wanted to work in a leadership role or
16:35
capacity later on and I had time to finish it online.
16:38
So I did my BSN program after I became a flight nurse.
16:41
One thing that I remember as we're talking about schedule is
16:44
that I've actually helped a couple people get hired in
16:46
travel flight nursing positions. So there's travel flight nursing
16:49
positions too, which means instead of working a 24 hour
16:53
shift, you work a 48 and then you have anywhere from 7 to 10
16:58
days off and then you work another 48.
17:00
I did help someone just recently get hired who does I think six
17:04
or seven days on and then has 14 days off.
17:06
I've also sent six or seven days on and then you have 7 days off.
17:11
So there's lots of different contracts, lots of different
17:14
flight nursing schedule can vary, but that's really why you
17:17
want to get in there and do the ride along to make connections
17:19
as well because you get to find out what are the different
17:21
schedules. And again, you don't have to
17:23
make any of these decisions until there's an offer on the
17:25
table. Everybody who comes to work with
17:27
me, I really want to get them multiple offers so that they
17:30
have a lot of choices. And by the time you have been
17:34
doing this many ride alongs and making connections with multiple
17:37
companies and sometimes the same basis over and over again, you
17:40
start to really order, put an order like what are your top
17:44
three and why? And so if you did get multiple
17:47
offers, you already know which one you're going to choose.
17:51
OK, so we covered pay, we covered requirements.
17:57
I get asked a lot, what types of calls do you run?
18:01
So again, this is dependent on where you live and where your
18:06
base is at, out of and where you fly out of.
18:08
I flew out of Central California where we have a lot of water
18:14
accidents, a lot of AG accidents, a lot of traffic
18:18
accidents. So we get a lot of scene calls.
18:20
There's a lot of gunshot wounds, stabbings, because there's high
18:23
affiliation with gangs here. And then we have a ski resort
18:27
and we have a lot of bodies of water, not only the ocean, but
18:32
you also have lakes and various places where people go for water
18:39
activities. So we saw a lot of drownings as
18:41
well. So because of that, I, I do feel
18:43
like my base ran a fair amount of sinkhole.
18:46
So those are 911 calls. And we did do a lot of inner
18:51
facility calls too. So inner facility calls are from
18:55
one hospital to the next. And usually that's from a lower
18:58
level hospital that doesn't have the carrot or specialties that
19:01
they need to a higher level care of a hospital, but not always.
19:06
But that's what IFT looks like. So this is really why they want
19:11
critical care experience in general and why companies don't
19:15
require ER and ICU because they just want to make sure that in
19:19
those three years you grew your critical care experience.
19:21
Before I got into flight, I didn't have any ER, any
19:24
pediatric, any cardiac device experience.
19:27
So they teach you all of that in your training, but they heavily
19:31
rely on you thinking about your critical thinking skills in
19:34
order to kind of take care of these patients maybe that you
19:37
have never seen before. And you run from a huge, huge
19:41
protocol book. You're never alone.
19:43
I think a lot of people get really nervous because you
19:45
become a small team. It's you and a medic, but a
19:49
medic brings all the pre hospital experience and you
19:52
bring all the hospital experience.
19:53
So it's a perfect partnership. And if you don't know
19:57
everything, it's OK. You have your medical director.
19:59
You can call your sending receipt.
20:01
You're sending and receiving physician.
20:02
You can call and get orders. And what I found as a flight
20:05
nurse is that people are super helpful.
20:07
It's not like in the hospital when sometimes you can't get a
20:09
hold of the doctor. No, they always want to help you
20:12
and give you verbal orders or help you get the patient out
20:15
because they really want that transfer to happen.
20:18
So if you don't have that, you always have your base hospital
20:22
and your medical director too that is always, always willing
20:24
to work with you. I think I covered the bases of
20:27
most of the questions, but I want you guys to know if there's
20:30
any other questions that you have for me and I didn't go
20:32
over, you can always, always reach out to me on Instagram or
20:36
my e-mail is in my Instagram as well.
20:39
DM me. I answer every single question
20:41
personally back and I do a lot of free training, which brings
20:46
me to my last point on this free training.
20:48
I'll go over any other questions that you have, but then the next
20:52
common question that I get asked is where do I even start?
20:56
And for everybody that is different depending on if you
20:59
were starting a nursing school because you know this goal post
21:01
graduation non critical care nurse or critical care nurse or
21:04
you've been a critical care nurse for 10-15 years, 20 years.
21:08
This is the very first time I'm going to be doing this training
21:11
to the public outside of my program.
21:13
I just feel like I want to get this in the hands of everybody
21:17
so that I can debunk everybody's thoughts on how they think they
21:23
should get there based on what the Google tells them or what
21:26
other people tell them. So I am going to teach you on
21:29
this next free training, how to map out your personal plan to
21:32
flight. No matter where you are
21:34
starting. I highly recommend if you know
21:36
that you want flight to start mapping it out early.
21:38
So I'm going to go through each stages.
21:40
I'm going to walk you through if you're a nursing student, post
21:42
nursing student, non critical care nurse, critical care nurse,
21:45
and every year of being a critical care nurse, what to
21:48
focus on all the way to a flight offer.
21:51
I am going to be doing this free training, mapping out your
21:53
personal plan to flight Monday, September 15th.
21:56
So by the time this drops, it'll be a little over a week before
22:00
and it's going to be going at noon Pacific Standard Time.
22:04
I'm going to be running the Zoom call and this free training.
22:09
This is going to be all over Zoom.
22:10
So it can be online. You can do it from the comfort
22:12
of your own home and you can sign up with the link in the bio
22:16
to this podcast or you can sign up with the link in my Instagram
22:20
or TikTok bio as well. But this is going to be
22:24
absolutely free to you. I want to get this information
22:27
out to people. I don't know if I'm going to be
22:28
doing this training ever again, but I feel like people need this
22:32
in their hands of what their plan is so that they can get on
22:34
track and start moving forward with it.
22:36
And I want to invite you guys, if you know that you want flight
22:39
nursing, you want a community, you want a mentorship and
22:42
support all the way, come join us inside the flight Prep
22:45
Academy. When I wanted to get into
22:46
flight, I didn't know anybody else in the industry.
22:48
And because I flew for seven years, I precepted people for
22:51
six years, brand new flight nurses, brand new flight medics.
22:54
I sat in hundreds of interviews. I know what flight companies are
22:57
looking for and I want to help each and every single person who
23:00
wants to get in flight create that plan and create success all
23:04
the way to getting there. This is a lifetime membership
23:06
because I want to work with you, mentor you, support you, and
23:08
give you a community so you don't feel alone all the way to
23:11
a flight offer and for the longevity of however you want to
23:13
fly. So if you are close, if you are
23:16
at the three-year mark, still come join because you can stay
23:18
in this group for however long that you want to be a flight
23:20
nurse or flight medic and I help you support you and transition
23:24
you all the way through the job. You guys mostly are only
23:27
thinking about getting there, but I'm thinking about helping
23:30
you become the flight nurse before you get hired and
23:32
transition confidently into the role.
23:35
That's it for this week. If you guys have any additional
23:38
questions, don't hesitate to reach out to me on Instagram or
23:41
TikTok. And I hope to see all you guys
23:43
at the free training so that we can map out your personal plan
23:45
to flight. I'll see you guys next week.
23:47
Bye. Since the recording of this
23:49
podcast and due to popular demand, I am opening up another
23:53
free training of how to map out your plan to flight.
23:55
So you guys can join me on Monday, December 15th at new
23:58
Pacific Standard Time where I will be teaching you wherever
24:01
you are starting your full on mapped out plan to flight.
24:04
You can click on the link in my bio to register for the free
24:08
training. And that's it for this week you
24:10
guys. I hope you have a great happy
24:12
Thanksgiving and I'll see all of you guys next week.
24:15
Bye. If anything in this episode
24:17
sparked your interest into getting into flight, come join
24:19
my flight flight group. We are an entire community that
24:22
meets together on a weekly basis with an ongoing group chat.
24:25
And if you are already flying and you are currently a flight
24:27
nurse or flight medic, you can join my all flight clinician
24:30
group as well. You can click on the link to
24:31
join in the show notes or you can DM me on Instagram.
24:34
I hope to see all of you guys inside.