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Medical flights help you and your families travel safely after someone is hospitalized or may have limited mobility. Medical air travel arrangements can be scheduled with a flight coordinator who should be an RN with emergency and critical care experience. Registered nurses with extensive Critical Care/Emergency experience accompany you during travel from beginning to end, bedside to bedside.
How Does a Flight Coordinator Help?
They differ from emergency flights, in which patients are flown directly to a hospital by plane or helicopter.
Medical flights and medical travel are popular because they allow those with debilitating conditions, disorders, disabilities or injuries to have the comfort and security of a flight nurse accompanying them through the airport and during their flight.
Flight nurses typically work with an agency such as Flying Angels that also employs an RN Flight Coordinator. They handle all the advance planning for medical travel, coordinating with airports, airlines, ground transportation and hotels.
The reason for seeking medical flights or medical travel differ by the individual. When using medical transport, patients have made the decision that they want support during their trip from a trained, qualified and experienced nurse.
In many cases, the patients are older travelers with a chronic condition. They could be visiting relatives, going on a family vacation to a distant location or relocating to a new home to be closer to family.
Whatever the case, medical flights provide you with the support you need. For example, airport personnel is contacted in advance so they know when you’re arriving. The flight nurse goes through TSA with you and works to make sure any medical equipment (such as a wheelchair or medications) are carried on properly. TSA notification cards can help to expedite the security checkpoint process in several ways as well as TSA PreCheck™.
What is a TSA Notification Card?
The flight nurse helps you board the flight in advance to ensure you’re not waiting in lines or accidentally bumped into by another traveler. Your flight coordinator would have already chosen the best seat assignment for your situation and has arranged to have all the medication and supplies you need for the flight. RN flight nurses are experts at high-altitude healthcare which can also be referred to as aviation physiology. Medical flights and medical travel provide security and comfort to those who decide to work with a professional non-emergency medical transportation company.
Medical emergency flights are sometimes referred to as medical flights, but the difference is the “emergency” part.
Patients on an emergency medical flight are usually being taken from the scene of an accident or a natural disaster to a hospital. Emergency personnel provides medical care during the flight that focuses on preserving life until they can get to an intensive care unit. So, while the term medical flight might sometimes be used to refer to emergency flights, it typically refers to non-emergency medical transport. It’s a way for people to have peace of mind during their flight, knowing they will arrive safely and have help if any type of emergency does arise.
RN Flight Coordinators simplify the medical travel process. Find out how Flying Angels provides certified & professional assisted flight travel now!
An airline nurse provides care for patients during every phase of air transportation. While salaries for the position vary based on many factors, including years of experience and level of education, the average salary for airline nurses across the United States is $82,207 according to Salary.com.
Across the country, airline nurses typically have salaries that range between $73,000 and $92,000. However, it is often found that airline nurses or associated medical transport professionals are paid on a per diem basis vs. a salary.
In many ways, the job of an airline nurse mirrors that of an emergency room nurse.
Nurses who work in an ER must manage diverse types of patients suffering from a wide variety of illness and injuries. They are trained to make fast, smart decisions in an often-frenetic environment.
Many airline nurses have years of experience working in an emergency room. The skills gained there help them better perform their job as an airline nurse.
An airline nurse has many responsibilities. They assess a patient’s condition before traveling. Then, they develop a transport plan to get the patient to their destination safely. They also work with airline personnel to make the trip through the airport as easy as possible. They may also coordinate ground transportation on both ends of the trip.
Most importantly, they are specially trained to provide quality care to patients during the flight. They have expertise in the details of providing medical care while thousands of feet in the air.
An airline nurse can work in emergency situations. However, many also work with patients who are ill or have had injuries but must still take a flight. Others also work with older or chronically ill patients who require professional medical care while taking a flight.
Location is a key component of salary in all professions. The online salary aggregator site Salary.com allows you to look at places where some of the highest salaries are available for an airline nurse. As with most professions, the highest salaries are in California and the Northeast.
Some of the highest salaries are in counties that include the following cities:
Others area where salaries are above average include Chicago, Denver, Houston, Las Vegas, Seattle, and Miami.
Many factors other than location play a role in salary. They include years of experience in both emergency rooms and as an airline nurse, Also, the level of college degree attained and certifications earned play a role. Higher salaries also are typically given for positions in management.
Growth in the field continues as more people become aware of the benefits of medical transport service. For nurses, it offers an exciting opportunity outside the typical environments of a hospital, physician’s office or long-term care home.
People with chronic conditions can, in many cases, still use air travel to reach their destinations. Doing so requires planning and consultation with clinicians. It’s also helpful to travel with medical professionals who can provide continuity of care during air travel.
Flight nurses who work for non-emergency medical transport (NEMT) companies can provide this service, traveling with patients from their home to their final destination. The best NEMT companies also employ RN flight coordinators to book all the tickets for the flight as well as work with airlines and airports in advance to help smooth the way for clients with chronic conditions.
As noted by Johns Hopkins Medicine, “Chronic conditions should not keep people from enjoying travel.” They advise that as with other medical conditions, people with chronic diseases should always “see their healthcare provider as early as possible before traveling.”
Johns Hopkins also notes that those with chronic conditions should “travel with a companion familiar with their condition.”
The term continuity of care refers to the healthcare strategy of coordination and delivering services to a patient over a period of time and at different locations. The idea is to provide patients with consistent, uninterrupted care that allows them to seamlessly move between healthcare providers and settings.
Continuity of care is especially important for patients with chronic conditions or complex medical needs. In those cases, patients often require care from a variety of providers.
In the context of air travel, continuity of care refers to delivery of healthcare services during a journey using commercial airlines. Flight nurses accompany patients throughout the trip, overseeing medications and providing any needed medical treatment. They also assist those with chronic conditions as they navigate the airport, as well as boarding and deplaning.
What are some of the chronic conditions that people travel with the most? They include hypertension, arthritis, allergies, traumatic brain injury, stroke (depending on the type and severity), mild asthma, and chronic digestive issues such as acid reflux. Those with injuries that limit mobility can also often fly, including those with a broken leg.
Some of those with certain conditions may be advised against air travel, according to Johns Hopkins. They include people with cardiac failure, a recent myocardial infarction (heart attack) or stroke, angina (chest pain) at rest, heart rate or rhythm disorders, uncontrolled arterial hypertension, severe anemia, sickle-cell anemia, acute mental disorders, epilepsy, and any serious or contagious diseases. Even in these cases, the decision to fly or not depends on an individual’s medical condition.
NEMT flight nurses work with RN flight coordinators, going through the details of a client’s flight and reviewing the care they will require. They also review airport procedures and contact airline and airport officials about any special requirements a client might need, such as a special security line or boarding a plane early.
Nurses also review a client’s condition and ensure all the necessary medical equipment and medications are packed for the trip. They also have a medical kit of their own to prepare for any needs the client might experience during air travel or at the airport.
Flight nurses are trained in flight physiology, as well as psychological distress patients may experience during a flight. They also track the times for giving clients their medication and make routine health checks. In this way, they ensure continuity of care during air travel for their clients, including those with chronic conditions.
Flight nurses provide important care for those with chronic conditions who do not want to fly alone. An NEMT flight nurse provides the peace of mind in knowing clients by providing continuity of care during air travel.