Paramedic vs RN to become a Flight Paramedic/nurse.

[FormerEMSLT297]

Heah dude, Several questions:

1. Where do you want to work? what state ?.... what type of system? Hospital based, 9-1-1 system. military, etc.

2. What type of patients do you want to see? Traumas, Medicals, both, transfers ?.... etc .

In Maryland most of the scene flights are handled by Md State Police, in Virginia most scene flights are handled by a combination of hospital based helicopter units AirCare (Inova Fairfax Hospital, MedSTAR, etc.) and Police medevac services like Fairfax Police, Virginia State, Etc.

I know for a fact that MedSTAR Flight nurses are RN's and required to be NREMT-P, as well as DC, MD, VA, DE, and I think WV medics... as well as ACLS and all the other alphabet stuff...

If you want to stay in MD and work as a flight medic your options are limited.... If you are willing to travel or relocate your chances are better. For flight medics most systems REQUIRE a minimum 3-5 years of service in what they call a "High volume" EMS system. with a lot of good well rounded ALS experience. Some have very stringent testing and evaluation systems to weed out people who look good on paper but are what one would call a "paper tiger".

What ever you choose to do GOOD LUCK,, also, follow your dream ,,,,, I wanted to be a flight medic since I was about 8 years old. I became a first aider then EMT at 18, went into the Navy worked as a Corpsman, got out worked some 10 years in NYC and finally at age 39 landed a spot as a flight medic full time.

Best of luck

Former