Who is a Flight Nurse? A Flight Nurse is the professionally trained registered Nurse employed in the services of flight operations. Like the services of a general Nursing practitioner who has been trained to attend to the complaints of a patient before the doctor examines and discovers what is wrong with the patient. Therefore, the Flight Nurse is a crew member that is employed by an airline to attend to the sick passenger(s) on board while the aircraft is airborne on its way to its destination. Any registered nurse could be employed by any airline to perform the Flight Nurse’s duties after some induction courses in order to get familiar with an aircraft operational duties and schedules.

However, the more the experience of a Nurse prior to Flight Nursing, the better the services enjoyed by both the passengers and the airline’s Staff. Many nurses are “Type A” personalities who need great initiatives and drive to successfully and happily perform these humane duties. Nurses should possess exceptional assessment and re-assessment skills with a passion for this noble task. Unfortunately, the shortage of registered nurses persists. Consequently, Flight Nursing Agencies who handle the recruitment and training of Flight Nurses are having a tough time finding seasoned Nursing Personnel to perform this delicate job. Nurses usually say that although this non-traditional role can be demanding, their rewards do reach even greater heights.

Safety is the watchword of a Flight Nurse, and is paramount in everything they do. There is also emotional intelligence that is needed to be successful in this job of Flight Nursing and the daunting duties. Also, because of the expanded practice nature of their profession, it has been their parameter that allows them to work independently without the direct supervision of a doctor as it is the case in the conventional hospital or clinic settings. They are empowered to make diagnoses, prescribe medication and perform other necessary first aid duties in order to lessen the pain or discomfort of their passengers while in the air before reaching destinations.

A Flight Nurse must be self-assured, gentle and kind in nature or develop these virtues over time. Some form of leadership qualities in him or her are needed; coupled with a passion and kindness for caring or looking after the patient with utmost care. There are times or occasions when Flight Nurses are very helpful during some Natural disasters like earthquakes, floods, and hurricane or fire outbreak. During such times, many emergency agencies help evacuate the victims to safety. Like during hurricane Katrina in Louisiana, New Orleans in U.S.A; Flight Nurses were of very great assistance in evacuating flood victims to safety. Through helicopter operations, premature babies were kept alive in temperatures that exceeded one hundred degrees Fahrenheit.

Experience has shown that Registered Nurses (RNs) with Flight Nursing experience were quickly moved from the low and middle level positions up to exalted management positions and other duties. Ordinarily, Flight Nursing usually requires two to three years of critical care experience. However, due to the low number of such nurses, workers are made available to be converted to Flight Nursing assignments. Students learn safe operations and navigation skills where they can be familiar with emergency procedures and shutting down the aircraft. Getting experts to a patient used to be a bit more difficult with safety measures that have to be followed strictly. Flight Nurses are now being trained to be better equipped to handle the Patients (i.e. the sick passengers) better.

So the task really weighs heavily on Flight Nurses in getting the Patient to the Expert during emergency situations just as earlier mentioned in the Katrina hurricane experiences and other natural disasters around the world. As for the helicopters, safety checks are equally necessary at the beginning of each shift like any other private or commercial airline; but the pilot and the aeronautic engineers have the ultimate responsibility for the aircraft because it is a team effort to prepare the aircraft for each trip. In other words, every crew member including the Flight Nurse has the authority to stop the trip if they feel or believe that something is not right; hence the significance of having a Flight Nurse as a crew member for each airline. Frankly, the statutory role of a Flight Nurse in making an air trip as safe as can be, cannot be simple be over emphasized.