Latest / The Shift Podcast / 121. Flight Nursing FAQs

Transcript

121. Flight Nursing FAQs · The Shift Podcast

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