Become a Flight Paramedic: Career Tips

Working as a flight paramedic can be very rewarding. Even though you might have a chance of working as a flight paramedic right out of school, it usually takes hard work, experience and education to land a job as a flight paramedic. Some facts about a career as a Flight Paramedic: There are approximately 1200 flight paramedics in the United States. To illustrate how competitive the field is, for every opening for flight paramedic, there are approximately 250 applicants. There are approximately 227 air ambulance programs in the United States. Most programs are hospital based flying out of urban areas. Most air ambulance programs staff their helicopters with a nurse and a flight paramedic though some use a physician and a nurse, reserving their paramedic for ground transport duties when the helicopter is grounded for weather, preventive maintenance or other reasons.

Typical Duties of Flight Paramedics

One of the most important duties of a flight paramedic is to keep up with their education. Usually, the person picked for a flight paramedic position will already be highly trained. Most air ambulance services look for someone who came from a busy ambulance service. On top of that, they look for people who have a high degree of training. National Registry Paramedic is almost a required certification. Flight programs give great weight to those that hold instructor certifications in Advanced Cardiac Life Support, Basic Trauma Life Support, Pre-Hospital Trauma Life Support and Pediatric Trauma Life Support. Once on the job as a flight paramedic, your organization may require you, besides your usual requirements for continuing education, to further your education.

Another requirement of the job, not only during the interview process, but after hire as well, is the upkeep of a professional appearance. Remember, you will be the face of the organization that you represent. You will be interacting with patients, families, other emergency professionals, doctors and nurses.

You will also be expected to assist with patient care. This can be as simple as obtaining vital signs to administering medications. This is why organizations that hire flight paramedics place such an emphasis on education, both pre-employment and post employment. Not only is a well educated paramedic more likely to be hired, but after being hired on as a flight paramedic, they are less likely to make a mistake that could jeopardize a patient. You will be expected to be an important part of the patient care team.

Typical Requirements for a Flight Paramedic

According to the International Association of Flight Paramedics, the typical requirements for a flight paramedic are;

· National registry as a paramedic

· Instructor certification in ACLS, BTLS, PHTLS, PALS

· Experience in a high volume 911 system

· Experience in inter-facility transport of critical care patients

· Emergency department or hospital ICU experience

· Being well read and up to date on current research and treatments