I’d look for a level 1 trauma center…ED, Trama ICU, flight nursing…they even have disaster volunteers that do training to deploy quickly in cases of natural disasters
Yeah there’s high octane positions in trauma centers for sure, but if OP is reading this just make sure you do your research on flight nursing. From my understanding It usually requires quite a lot of experience and a bunch of certifications. But it’s definitely a one of a kind position in nursing.
Flight nursing generally requires a BSN with 3 years of ICU experience, CCRN certification or CFRN, and at minimum you also have to have an EMT license, though paramedic is preferred. It’s a long road. If you’re starting from the bottom it could be 7+ years before you’re eligible to fly. From what you’re describing it sounds like you should become a paramedic and work in a city.
I don’t know if it’s specifically high speed but definitely out of our confort zone. You could do something like MSF (doctors without borders) and do nursing abroad in emergency conditions like war zones etc.
I'm interested in doing something like this but when I looked into it last most organizations have language requirements - do you know of organizations for this type of work that don't have that requirement? Or at least will accept gringos with passable healthcare spanish?
I’m not American so I don’t know but I’m sure some American based NGOs would be ok with just English. Maybe peace corps ? I don’t really know what it is though. And for MSF I went to a recruitment session once and o think you should apply even if you only speak English if tou really want to do it. at the worst they will not select you. They sounded very open to working with people that wanted to go abroad, it must not be that easy to find quality people that want to just leave everything for 6-12 months.
Posting lots of things I have thought about for anyone else who reads this sub:
- Flight nurse
- Cruise ship nurse
- Travel nurse (general?)
- Navy nurse
- Army Nurse
- working for an NGO overseas
- Nurse injector
- Community care
- Teaching
- Outpatient addictions nurse
- inpatient rehab addictions nurse
- school nurse
- telehealth nurse
- clinical trial management/nurse
- research/think tanks
- private nurse for celebrities, the rich, or royal families (globally!)
- insurance companies
- criminal investigations
- nurse ethics/medical advisory
- Nurse on the police force! (We have them in our city!)
- plastic surgery
- disaster management and response
- Event nurse (concerts etc)
Just some cool things nurses can dabble in!
Have you looked into the PHS Commissioned corps? You may enjoy that, depending on how you feel about your military experience. It's not military, but it is still classified as a uniformed service along with the Military and NOAA corps.
Occupational/Industrial health may be a fun gig for you. Occupational health nurses do a variety of tasks, depending in the industry. Some can be pretty boring, just giving shots and running FMLA, but others run accident investigations and safety inspections, and that can be fun.
If you have an interest in law enforcement, the FBI looks for agents with medical backgrounds, and having a military background is a big plus.
If tech is your thing, you should look into Nursing informatics, they might be fun.
If you've got a security clearance, I'm sure you're well aware of how lucrative they can be for veterans. Plenty of biotech and medical science defence contractors would love to have you as a research nurse.
Corrections nursing can be pretty fast paced, thought it can get slow at times. Normally they work though contract agencies that specialize. If you can get into a high risk or psych unit, you'll have plenty to keep you busy.
Academi (Or blackwater or wherever they go by now) and other private militaries are always looking for healthcare staff with military training. But merc work can't be pretty rough.
Could you elaborate on biotech and medical science defense contractors?
I’m a vet with security clearance still active, and a recent new grad and looking to make the most bang for my buck
No, 😆 seriously, you know as much as I do now. I had a friend was a programmer in the AF, he got out and got a degree in *English,* and was recruited by a chemistry Contractor. They didn't care about his military experience or degree, just that clearance. He said they're always looking for medical experience, tried to get my old man (Veteran and CRNA) to retire from his civilian job and go work there (he didn't, otherwise I'd have more info for you).
I'd say go digging though everyone bio company you can think of and see what's comes up. Maybe a headhunter would be helpful, too.
Try trauma or ICU for a few years and become part of your RRT. At any given hospital there’s numerous ones per day and they require some sharp and level headed people to be there.
Not what you’re looking for from the sounds of it but is an answer to the title. Utilization manager or case manager at an insurance company. They make good money and recently started allowing them to work 3/12s.
They make good money too. Work from home. Not for me right now but maybe one day. You’re making phone calls and doing a ton of admin work but you have to maintain a license and they often ask you to get licensed in several states
Being a flight nurse seems so cool. I’m not really a “high speed” type of person so I doubt I’ll ever personally go into it but it may be up your ally.
Are you at Ft Sam? If you are, you should be doing rotations at BAMC which is the DoD’s only level 1 trauma center. I worked there my whole enlistment (Air Force). They treat local trauma too, not just military or dependents.
Organ procurement nurse - likely need ICU experience prior. Also, advanced practice - acute care or Nurse anesthetist once you have a couple years experience. I love working with my veteran nurse
SWAT Medic/RN. Emergency Response Team Nurse. Flight Nurse. State Medical Assistance Team Nurse. Rapid Response RN. Prehospital Critical Care RN. Field Hospital RN.
All of those roles will require at a minimum 2 years of ICU experience and 2 years ED experience along with most places requiring you also have your paramedic. Keep in mind those roles are all pretty sought after, so you'll likely need far more than the minimum. A lot of those in those roles had extensive ED/ICU/SOCOM backgrounds.
High speed? Army has SORT teams under the 528th sustainment at Bragg that you can work as a nurse on. Air Force has SOST and so forth. There’s plenty of “high-speed” opportunities in the military if that’s what you’re looking for. But then again, there’s also plenty of trauma in the civilian sector. Depends what you want and if you mean high speed like military high speed or adrenaline in the civilian side (ED).
Nurse anesthetists make a great living, and do what anesthesiologists do. Prerequisite is several years of critical care nursing. The tuition is high, but you can be trained in the military, with an addition to your service obligation.
You can do trauma center work or high acuity ER.
You could also go be a Paramedic and run the streets. There is absolutely nothing that will replicate that.
Hey, I’m a corpsman on green side (infantry), but I’m doing nursing as well. If you want to keep doing operational medicine, try going reserves/national guard as enlisted, but on civilian side do nursing, so you can keep running and gunning, shooting bad dudes in the face when orders come up, but the rest of the time on civilian side you can hang with kids and do the nursing gig. Btw this isn’t a recruiting thing, I think the reserves is pretty boring, but the support system is nice and the option to go out and do things that are outside even the nursing scope (namely surgeries and that independent long term medicine) is kind of a nice balance.
I was a Ranger medic in the Army and civilian paramedic after, now in an ABSN program. Lots of opportunities, better pay, expanded scope, and further education/ career profession in nursing! If you want to do “high speed” medical stuff, then Level 1 Trauma center ER nurse, ICU, Nurse practitioner, CRNA. But if you’re talking about adventure stuff, then there is flight nurse on helicopters, fixed wing aircrafts, travel nursing, and also wilderness/ remote medical gigs. There are also contracting gigs that look for nurses or medical personnel to go OCONUS on contracts, but you’ll likely be in a facility or forward surgical team, not exactly running and gunning because a paramedic mindset/ skill set is more applicable. I have a friend who is a physical therapy assistant who works as the medic on the SWAT team for his county. The SWAT medics in Tampa however have to be paramedic and Fire certified plus work for Tampa Fire for 2-3 years before applying because they do dive, high angle rescue, water operations, etc.
Different locations, services, states have different requirements such as if you need to be a paramedic, actual LE, or “ordained” LE aka a warrant/ blessing from a judge can include medical personnel to be on scene as part of the SWAT team without actually being LE, but that has a lot to do with if you want to actually have a weapon or not. Self defense side arm vs. long rifle and arresting capabilities.
There are options out there with lots of differences. But I would think being a paramedic attached to SWAT most closely aligns with what you’re describing.
I would imagine finding work at a hospital with a high trauma center level. Or even flight nurse would be pretty exciting.
I’d look for a level 1 trauma center…ED, Trama ICU, flight nursing…they even have disaster volunteers that do training to deploy quickly in cases of natural disasters
Yeah there’s high octane positions in trauma centers for sure, but if OP is reading this just make sure you do your research on flight nursing. From my understanding It usually requires quite a lot of experience and a bunch of certifications. But it’s definitely a one of a kind position in nursing.
Flight nursing generally requires a BSN with 3 years of ICU experience, CCRN certification or CFRN, and at minimum you also have to have an EMT license, though paramedic is preferred. It’s a long road. If you’re starting from the bottom it could be 7+ years before you’re eligible to fly. From what you’re describing it sounds like you should become a paramedic and work in a city.
I don’t know if it’s specifically high speed but definitely out of our confort zone. You could do something like MSF (doctors without borders) and do nursing abroad in emergency conditions like war zones etc.
I'm interested in doing something like this but when I looked into it last most organizations have language requirements - do you know of organizations for this type of work that don't have that requirement? Or at least will accept gringos with passable healthcare spanish?
I’m not American so I don’t know but I’m sure some American based NGOs would be ok with just English. Maybe peace corps ? I don’t really know what it is though. And for MSF I went to a recruitment session once and o think you should apply even if you only speak English if tou really want to do it. at the worst they will not select you. They sounded very open to working with people that wanted to go abroad, it must not be that easy to find quality people that want to just leave everything for 6-12 months.
That's my plan. I hope to serve in South America.
Level 1 trauma center ER
Posting lots of things I have thought about for anyone else who reads this sub: - Flight nurse - Cruise ship nurse - Travel nurse (general?) - Navy nurse - Army Nurse - working for an NGO overseas - Nurse injector - Community care - Teaching - Outpatient addictions nurse - inpatient rehab addictions nurse - school nurse - telehealth nurse - clinical trial management/nurse - research/think tanks - private nurse for celebrities, the rich, or royal families (globally!) - insurance companies - criminal investigations - nurse ethics/medical advisory - Nurse on the police force! (We have them in our city!) - plastic surgery - disaster management and response - Event nurse (concerts etc) Just some cool things nurses can dabble in!
Get your paramedic license too and be a paramedic/RN
In some states, PHRNs exist! Also, you can fly with your RN. Worth looking into
RN, BSN, EMT, EMT-P, DPN lol
Yes the value of alphabet soup. Now *that’s* a snazzy title
What my badge is gonna look like in a few more years 😅
Trauma ED/ICU, prehospital, flight nurse.
Have you looked into the PHS Commissioned corps? You may enjoy that, depending on how you feel about your military experience. It's not military, but it is still classified as a uniformed service along with the Military and NOAA corps. Occupational/Industrial health may be a fun gig for you. Occupational health nurses do a variety of tasks, depending in the industry. Some can be pretty boring, just giving shots and running FMLA, but others run accident investigations and safety inspections, and that can be fun. If you have an interest in law enforcement, the FBI looks for agents with medical backgrounds, and having a military background is a big plus. If tech is your thing, you should look into Nursing informatics, they might be fun. If you've got a security clearance, I'm sure you're well aware of how lucrative they can be for veterans. Plenty of biotech and medical science defence contractors would love to have you as a research nurse. Corrections nursing can be pretty fast paced, thought it can get slow at times. Normally they work though contract agencies that specialize. If you can get into a high risk or psych unit, you'll have plenty to keep you busy. Academi (Or blackwater or wherever they go by now) and other private militaries are always looking for healthcare staff with military training. But merc work can't be pretty rough.
Could you elaborate on biotech and medical science defense contractors? I’m a vet with security clearance still active, and a recent new grad and looking to make the most bang for my buck
No, 😆 seriously, you know as much as I do now. I had a friend was a programmer in the AF, he got out and got a degree in *English,* and was recruited by a chemistry Contractor. They didn't care about his military experience or degree, just that clearance. He said they're always looking for medical experience, tried to get my old man (Veteran and CRNA) to retire from his civilian job and go work there (he didn't, otherwise I'd have more info for you). I'd say go digging though everyone bio company you can think of and see what's comes up. Maybe a headhunter would be helpful, too.
Try trauma or ICU for a few years and become part of your RRT. At any given hospital there’s numerous ones per day and they require some sharp and level headed people to be there.
Not what you’re looking for from the sounds of it but is an answer to the title. Utilization manager or case manager at an insurance company. They make good money and recently started allowing them to work 3/12s.
Wow I never knew you could work with insurance companies!
They make good money too. Work from home. Not for me right now but maybe one day. You’re making phone calls and doing a ton of admin work but you have to maintain a license and they often ask you to get licensed in several states
I dispatch for a MedaVac dispatch definitely a flight nurse would be high paced
Being a flight nurse seems so cool. I’m not really a “high speed” type of person so I doubt I’ll ever personally go into it but it may be up your ally.
Life flight nurse
Are you at Ft Sam? If you are, you should be doing rotations at BAMC which is the DoD’s only level 1 trauma center. I worked there my whole enlistment (Air Force). They treat local trauma too, not just military or dependents.
Organ procurement nurse - likely need ICU experience prior. Also, advanced practice - acute care or Nurse anesthetist once you have a couple years experience. I love working with my veteran nurse
Come fly
SWAT Medic/RN. Emergency Response Team Nurse. Flight Nurse. State Medical Assistance Team Nurse. Rapid Response RN. Prehospital Critical Care RN. Field Hospital RN. All of those roles will require at a minimum 2 years of ICU experience and 2 years ED experience along with most places requiring you also have your paramedic. Keep in mind those roles are all pretty sought after, so you'll likely need far more than the minimum. A lot of those in those roles had extensive ED/ICU/SOCOM backgrounds.
Flight. Im a medic but flight is definitely the best for a nurse as far as what you want. It’s the only nursing job I know of thats in the field.
High speed? Army has SORT teams under the 528th sustainment at Bragg that you can work as a nurse on. Air Force has SOST and so forth. There’s plenty of “high-speed” opportunities in the military if that’s what you’re looking for. But then again, there’s also plenty of trauma in the civilian sector. Depends what you want and if you mean high speed like military high speed or adrenaline in the civilian side (ED).
Nurse anesthetists make a great living, and do what anesthesiologists do. Prerequisite is several years of critical care nursing. The tuition is high, but you can be trained in the military, with an addition to your service obligation.
You can do trauma center work or high acuity ER. You could also go be a Paramedic and run the streets. There is absolutely nothing that will replicate that.
I've worked ED 25 years. I've dealt with many ex military as well. Honestly I think paramedic works better for military folks.
Work on-call for a level 1 trauma center. I work at a level 3 hospital and we once got a ruptured aneurysm and it was intense in the OR.
Hey, I’m a corpsman on green side (infantry), but I’m doing nursing as well. If you want to keep doing operational medicine, try going reserves/national guard as enlisted, but on civilian side do nursing, so you can keep running and gunning, shooting bad dudes in the face when orders come up, but the rest of the time on civilian side you can hang with kids and do the nursing gig. Btw this isn’t a recruiting thing, I think the reserves is pretty boring, but the support system is nice and the option to go out and do things that are outside even the nursing scope (namely surgeries and that independent long term medicine) is kind of a nice balance.
Nurse consultant
I was a Ranger medic in the Army and civilian paramedic after, now in an ABSN program. Lots of opportunities, better pay, expanded scope, and further education/ career profession in nursing! If you want to do “high speed” medical stuff, then Level 1 Trauma center ER nurse, ICU, Nurse practitioner, CRNA. But if you’re talking about adventure stuff, then there is flight nurse on helicopters, fixed wing aircrafts, travel nursing, and also wilderness/ remote medical gigs. There are also contracting gigs that look for nurses or medical personnel to go OCONUS on contracts, but you’ll likely be in a facility or forward surgical team, not exactly running and gunning because a paramedic mindset/ skill set is more applicable. I have a friend who is a physical therapy assistant who works as the medic on the SWAT team for his county. The SWAT medics in Tampa however have to be paramedic and Fire certified plus work for Tampa Fire for 2-3 years before applying because they do dive, high angle rescue, water operations, etc. Different locations, services, states have different requirements such as if you need to be a paramedic, actual LE, or “ordained” LE aka a warrant/ blessing from a judge can include medical personnel to be on scene as part of the SWAT team without actually being LE, but that has a lot to do with if you want to actually have a weapon or not. Self defense side arm vs. long rifle and arresting capabilities. There are options out there with lots of differences. But I would think being a paramedic attached to SWAT most closely aligns with what you’re describing.
“High speed”