How to Become a Flight Nurse

Flight nursing is one of the most high-octane, independent, and challenging roles in the field. These registered nurses (RNs) provide emergency patient care in fixed-wing aircraft and helicopters, often solo or in a team of two.

If you love adrenaline, critical care, and emergency nursing, and want a high level of responsibility, a career in flight nursing may be for you. This guide breaks down what a flight nurse is and how to become one, including education, licensure, and certification.

Flight nurses respond to medical emergencies and patient transport requests, where their high-level training, experience, and specialized clinical knowledge are key. Their patients include trauma and wilderness accident victims (medical evacuations/life flights) and critical care patients needing safe transportation between medical facilities (medical transport).

They provide patient care in rotor aircraft (helicopters) or fixed-wing aircraft (jet or propeller planes), and they work in a variety of settings, including:

Flight nurses work on flight teams often composed of the flight nurse, a paramedic, and a pilot, and their duties can include:

To specialize as a flight nurse, you must first obtain your registered nursing licensure, which requires completing a nursing degree program. Becoming a flight nurse also requires critical care or emergency nursing experience — ideally both.

Exact degree requirements vary. Still, most flight nursing positions strongly prefer candidates with a bachelor of science in nursing (BSN) degree.

Becoming a flight nurse requires RN licensure, and maintaining it involves completing continuing education units and paying a fee. Individual state boards of nursing all have their own specific requirements.

Most flight companies require nursing certifications, such as the CCRN from the American Association of Critical-Care Nurses or certified emergency nurse (CEN) from the Board of Certification for Emergency Nursing (BCEN). After working as a flight nurse for some time, most companies also require the certified flight registered nurse (CFRN) credential from the BCEN.

These national certification exams are challenging and can only be taken after working in critical care or emergency nursing for a minimum period, typically two years. That’s because they are meant to show mastery of these very complex, challenging nursing fields..

Most large university hospital systems have their own helicopter-based medical transport teams that bring patients to and from local hospitals. These teams usually recruit from their ICUs. The easiest way to break into flight nursing is to join your hospital’s critical care transport team after working in their ICU for a few years.

If your hospital doesn’t have a transport team, or you want to work in a stand-alone flight facility, you’ll need to acquire the required skills and experience, craft a resume and cover letter, and network with those in the field to secure a position.

It takes many years to fully develop all the skills and knowledge required to be a flight nurse. You will also attend conferences and educational opportunities to expand your knowledge and abilities throughout your career.