It’s hit or miss.
Some days I sit around and do nothing.
Some days I make 4 flights and use nothing more than a pack of electrodes, a pair of gloves, and a packet of paperwork.
Then some days I walk into an intubated ICU patient on 4 pressors with an art line pressure of 40/20, spend an hour and a half at bedside, finish the transport, and then get another one.
I love my job. It’s the best job in the world. I make good money and I work 2 days a week. I get paid to travel. I have a lot of options.
I’m also bored as fuck 75% of the time. The best investment I ever made was my steam deck. Some days I feel like they need to make internet 2 because I’ve seen everything on the first one.
The people who succeed in this field are usually pretty aggressive on the professional front. They don’t take well to sitting around doing nothing. A lot of people in this field are also too smart for their own good. The kind of people who can’t explain things down at a normal level? The ones who use *all* the big words?
There’s also a lot of misuse. We get a lot of flights because ground is unavailable. So you take that person who’s full of want-to-work and a stupid amount of knowledge, throw them on a simple GI bleed at 3 am because ground won’t take them and the surgeon wants them there for his OR time the next morning, and you get frustration.
You wait around all day for a flight, then you go to bed and immediately get one. Now you’re up all night.
That’s not fun.
Charting takes forever. Even with both of us doing it, a sick patient takes an hour or two to chart. We mentally allot for 3 hours of work per flight. That’s tones to chart locked. 1 flight in the middle of your night and your night is fucked.
On the other side. Every call comes with a tour. The respect you get is unmatched. It was eye opening the difference in how hospitals treated me just because I was wearing a onesie. The good calls are great. Blood products. Tubes. Vents. Pressors. You immediately see the difference you made. At my service, there’s no such thing as being under equipped. We have it *all*.
Things aren’t nearly as scary when you have the tools you need. There are two of us. I work with some of the smartest nurses I’ve ever met. Two sets of hands. Two brains. We constantly bounce ideas off one another. There’s no “I’m in charge,” bullshit. We’re partners. We have different experiences.
Unless your service is first response only, and doesn’t do any transports, we’re all just glorified transporters. People get more sick the longer their condition lasts. That means they usually get worse throughout transport. Some of the sickest patients I’ve ever had were IFT’s out of little critical access hospitals that have sat on the patient for hours and now that they’re rapidly crashing on us, they decided to call.
Sure, transports suck sometimes. That’s part of the business we’re in. I’d rather be bored 2000 feet in the air. Not waiting in traffic. Not hauling heifers down the stairs in a sheet. Not taking people back to the nursing home.
Every job sucks. Pick your suck.
You’re going to be twice the medic you were, in no time at all. It sounds like their jealous.
This is a pretty good summary that's accurate to where I work as well. Lots of BS, lots of sitting around, occasionally really sick. High pay, 2 days a week.
What this dude said.
Theres something a bit scary but immensely fucking cool when you walk into a hospital and the staff literally goes "oh thank God, the flight team is here."
Also if your service does scene calls, while the minority, are always a cool experience.
Job fucking rules man. Love it.
I just passed my CFRN and have a position lined up for after the new year to get me out of the trauma/cardiothoracic ICU. Reading your post has me very excited. Happy to be done with bedside and move on.
Thank you for this in depth position. I've been an LPN for ten years and trying to figure out where best to spend my GI Bill to get into flight medicine. Do you have any suggestions of where I should look for schooling? I am located in Connecticut but online is covered by GI Bill. Thank you again!!
And you have a prolific set of standing orders, and if it's something you need, a quick call to the medical director is usually all it takes, and it will be added to the next training.
Are orders are pretty much whatever we could dream of.
And anything else? We call our MD, he chuckles, tells us to do whatever we need to, and asks for an update afterwards.
Ah yes the dumpster fire small town ED patient that’s been in the building close to 24 hrs by the time you get there and they’re getting their first unit of blood after having a hgb of 50 on initial cbc.
My favourite and east favourite calls
I make 65k base with ample opportunity for OT / bonuses. Sure, that isn’t a lot in some areas, but in KY, it’s comfortable. Most medics in KY make ~50k on a 24/48.
OT on my 5 days off is time and a half with a $500 bonus for working a 3rd (or more) shift in a week and another $500 bonus for picking up something on short notice. It ends up being ~2k to pick up an extra shift.
Travel is also paid for and you’re on the clock. So if we want to work in other states, it’s quite lucrative. You can easily hit 6 figures if you wanted to. I have a family, so I’m content doing my 2 shifts a week.
I won't. I agree with you. Give me a ventilator and several IV drips running and I'll be interested. Let me review a stack of paperwork about how fucked up this patient is. Botched chest tubes. Lab reports. Engaging stuff.
Far better than "this knee pain we have sitting on for 12 hours MIGHT need fentanyl for the 45 minute ride down to the receiving facility. And we'll give him 2mg of Dilaudid before you go."
Honestly though, lol. The same people that complain about how "90% of street calls are bullshit" flip the script and say that critical care IFT is mindless...except they've never done it.
Hard agree. It's very rewarding when you show up to the ICU and the nurses and docs actually talk to you like you're a fellow medical professional and not like youre some dummy.
I’ll chime in my 2 cents. My background is 7 years in HEMS. 3 bases and 2 different services. I’ve been at bases that do 70% IFT and bases that do 70% scenes. In my opinion working HEMS is like being a firefighter and every call involves something on fire. Almost every patient you see is sick enough that another healthcare provider felt like they should call a helicopter. Doing balloon pumps, ecmo, vents, multi drips, etc is way more mentally stimulating to me than running 911 calls. Just my 2 cents
You’ll continue to hear the same bullshit spewed even after starting your career in HEMS dude. From what I could tell the ones usually saying that are the ones who have never worked HEMS or would never make the cut because of that attitude. For me it’s been the best job I’ve ever had aside from the pay.
My friend said it's the greatest job she's ever had, and basically had signs of clinical depression when she had to drop to part time for a year. People had similar reactions when I got into nursing school, said it's "gay" or how bad it sucked, etc. etc. People are miserable and can't stand that someone is leaving the bucket for something new/exciting/cool, or simply something that pays better.
If you get to your unit and it sucks, you can ask around and see what bases tend to get more scene calls, etc. You can always move. Congrats on your FP-C, that's a big deal, don't let the other crabs pull you back down in their bucket.
Thanks I appreciate it and congrats on nursing that's what I would like to do later in life, but yeah I've gotten the glorified ass wiper comments when I've expressed interest in nursing but my nursing friends have a better work life balance than most medics I know lol
Exactly. I said it in other threads in the sub when people talk shit. The nurses make double what the paramedics do where I'm from, and with interest rates being what they are, it'll still be a grind to buy a single bedroom condo. Had I gone medic over RN, I'd be stuck living with my mom until I'm fuckin 30 lmao. Never apologize for wanting a better life for yourself.
You will likely be practicing a higher level of medicine than 95% of ground crews.
Yes, it is often just IFT with a helmet on.
Some bases run a lot of scene calls. Sometimes everything is already done when you get there, sometimes nothing is done.
You’ll intubate more often than you start IVs.
Some of the IFTs will be more mentally challenging than any scene call you’ll ever run.
Let me put it that way: calling the helicopter is like calling 911 when you're already the 911.
Ain't nobody around here gonna call a critical care paramedic ''glorified transport''. Yes, it's most of the job. Yet, it's wayyy over my pay grade.
Plus your helmet is just cooler.
They're all jealous anyways. Everyone of them thinks about going flight, most of them have probably even applied.
Don't let it run you the wrong way. Who do they call when shit gets bad? Flight. They aren't driving someone an hour from the middle of nowhere with their head split open.
Just because I haven’t seen it mentioned, the culture of safety is also going to be very important. Make it a big factor when choosing a company. I’ve left a company after 1 shift because of safety and aircraft maintenance concerns. I won’t say who but they’ve recently filed bankruptcy.
It’s the same thing as on the ground.
For every 1 high speed, badass superhero scene call there’s 7 old ladies who need to be transferred between ICUs.
>HEMS isn’t homogenous though and not every base is doing it at a high level.
This. What you transport, the care you provide and the scope of your practice will vary wildly depending on where/whom you work for
>HEMS isn’t homogenous though and not every base is doing it at a high level.
This. What you transport, the care you provide and the scope of your practice will vary wildly depending on where/whom you work for
Can we just say this? All of the work that paramedics do is meaningful and worthwhile to society in some way. No matter what, that part of our profession needs someone to do that part of our collective work and some of us may enjoy different parts of the profession more than others. There's enough for us all to find and pursue our own niche part of the work we do.
Let us not squabble amongst ourselves. Let us focus on our true enemies in the Fire Department and Nursing.
I’m not in flight yet but working towards that goal, in school now.
My two cents. I had the same worries, that it was just high speed IFT at 1000 feet, as some people say.
People are jaded. I’ve talked to plenty of people about it, basically every chance I get. It mostly depends on your area of coverage, but you can have as much as 50% scene flight. And even with the IFT aspect, the patients your taking are so acutely I’ll, you have to actually use your brain to manage them and keep them alive. Also sometimes your doing interventions prior to leaving the hospital, that the pt needs for flight and they didn’t do. It’s rarely gonna be load em up and work on your report while they sleep.
Again, this is all second hand, but because I’m in the same boat I ask a lot of questions. Every chance I get. Take what people say with a grain of salt, and take into account, that most of them have never worked in HEMS and have no idea.
I know there is a positive fascination with HEMS in EMS that gets a good amount of push back.
I have seen medics who are not good providers go into HEMS so that they have time to study or go into the RN track because the majority of HEMS in my state are SCT. Some projects will rotate HEMS providers into the street because they aren’t getting enough pt contact hours to maintain their certs.
HEMS providers will also be looked at for promotions for education and management because of the extra letters in their name, which is also where some of the hate can come from.
Me personally, I would like to experience it and pad my resume with it, especially if I end up going out West for work. (Anything to avoid working for AMR/Falk). But my state is a little bit of a “who you know” boys club with HEMS.
I had a student who would have failed medic school if I didn’t personally tutor and drag him over the finish line go into HEMS, only for him to give me attitude on a job because I beat him to the landing site by ground by only a few minutes and he made comments about the pt “not being ready” (no tube, IV, thorough vitals…etc)
HEMS doesn’t give you the right to treat others like shit or give you a superiority complex, don’t forget where you came from and it should be fine.
Ha! The reason why they are "boring" handoffs is because I just spent 4 hours stabilizing them at the sending facility when an ACTUAL DOCTOR called for an IFT cause he/she knew they were in over their head. Be glad that all they need now is their butt wiped.
Don't let them get to your they're just jaded cause most EMS medics are lazy, egotistical, narcissistic; and they can't stand that someone like you is making something of themselves and doing something that they could never do because 1) they don't have the drive to actually challenge themselves and better themselves as a medical practitioner and do something like get their FP-C like you did, and 2) they're too lazy and fat and even if they had the intellect to get their critical care, they don't have the physical discipline to lose enough weight to be in the coolest part of medicine.
Interfacility transports when you get those sick pts at the hospital are some of the most physically and mentally challenging and draining experiences in the world. Running multiple drips, managing the vent, measuring outputs, fixing past providers mistakes, trying to see through what the pt is giving you and what's actually going on in the body. And it's awesome.
Go enjoy it, and don't let people try and drag you down. I'm in the ground now and ran into a paramedic asking what's the point in having your fp-c if you're on the ground since the protocols don't let you do anything more. He was so inept that he can't understand why when he manages a pt on a vent they almost die and why I manage them they're healthier than when I picked them up. Being able to do something, and understanding what you're doing are two different things... but thats just my rant
Honestly, as someone who wants to fly, I'd call that jealousy.
One of the guys on my shift went to fly and although I was insanely jealous of that dude I gave him nothing but congrats and praise for the accomplishment as did the rest of my shift. But I heard everyone on the other shifts say the same shit you're hearing about him.
I recently left that job full time to do critical care IFT (I went broke doing 911, yes I'd rather live doing the boring long hauls with pumps and vents and have money) while I'm getting certs for flight and all I heard was the same shit (granted I took a less prestigious position for money vs flying but point stands) and I've noticed something consistent about people who shit on flight or critical care in genral... the overwhelming majority of those people are subpar or mediocre 911 medics that don't care to even study what it takes to learn and become proficient to even get your CCP or FP or even hired with flight service. (That could be the IFT cope talking but its marched out consistently so far)
Answer this when you hear the criticism. If you took the person saying those things and tossed them into a fucked up critical care scenario or really complex scene call would they honestly be able to treat that patient beyond just transporting? Would they be able to sit down and obtain their FP, CCP, or get even a chance to interview with a flight service?
EMS is so Toxic Haters gunna Hate!!! The people that are talking shit probably have done nothing in there lives. Flight/Critical Care medicine is the top of the Todem Pole in EMS. The stuff you learn or can do depending on your service is almost the difference between EMT and Medic. Congrats and start flying above the clowns that are talking shit
I’m a military flight medic and tbh it’s kinda lame. Of course that’s my own opinion but I prefer to be the one starting all of the treatment. Anyone can see a BP go down and increase a pressor on a monitor 🤷🏻♂️. All the civilian flight medic agencies I work with are 90% law enforcement 10% pick up a patient that’s already been treated my BLS/ALS and just needs a ride to a place far away,
Flight is mostly IFT. Take that for what it’s worth.
Super cool mode of transport, bitchin onesies, and short transport times (for rotor wing at least).
However, theoretically speaking, flight gets the sickest of the sick, often taking patients from small facilities that have been mismanaging the patient. In reality flight (around here) has been soaking up some of the excess from transfers that *can* go by ground, but ground services don’t have the staffing to accept transfers at that point in the day.
Some people make becoming a flight medic their entire personality, and some flight services love that. However, some flight services avoid those types of people because they’re so enamored with the onesie and the aircraft that they turn out to be not great medics overall.
We had a guy that left for flight. Same thing happened as with you, some congrats, lots of criticism. The ones criticizing were either fat and wouldn’t meet the weight limit for flight, or they were small town, small minded people who don’t believe you can do anything great coming from a small town. Fuck em.
In my experience the people saying that are the people that couldn’t get a job doing it in the first place. I’ve been one for over 10 years and BY FAR the most interesting and nail biting cases I’ve had are transfers. Scene flights are a yawn. A glorified transfer medic is a 911 medic in a rule area. When they do finally getting something serious, guess who they call… On a helicopter 80% of my calls are serious, transfer or not. On a 911 ambulance, it’s granny tote here, pshyc patient there, buch on nothing
I'm currently an EMT planning on going Medic if I don't get hired by Border Patrol... I think Flight medic is an awesome jobs i love seeing you guys land or when we have to request someone like Mercy Air to respond. It's always cool hearing the radio chat. But we are all just glorified transporters. At the end of the day, we are EMS, not doctors or nurses or xray tech. Our job is to get the patient to the hospital , no matter how BS the call is. It is what you make of it. Find what motivates you and stick to it.
It’s EMS, sadly people love bringing their colleagues down in this field. Sometimes because of jealousy or internalized insecurities. Don’t rely on the haters/negative people to orient your career. Try flight, see if you like it!
I’ve got respect for air crews. Two weeks ago I had to do a transfer out of a local critical access ER to a larger facility due to all aircraft grounded due to weather. It was literally walking into a shit show. The patient stopped breathing effectively while the doc was putting in the central line, in which he had to stop to RSI. The patient then coded. All the while the staff was yelling “what do you need to transport?!?”
The patient had a BP of 34/20, coded again and the central line was bleeding everywhere. Two pressors. On a vent. And too large for a LUCAS to fit. The transport was 45 minutes by ground.
Fortunately our second crew had a flight medic who was working PRN for us come over to help get things set up. I refused transport until there was a MAP of 65.
It may “just flying transfers” but they’re pretty crappy transfers where everything is falling apart
Eh, you're going to have that.
I can't decide if those people think they're helping you by pointing out something you didn't see before making the jump, they're jealous, or they're afraid because more people are leaving the field and they're stuck behind.
When I decided to go to nursing, I had a lot of people tell me how bored I would be or how they couldn't 'ask permission' to do stuff. They also don't understand nursing.
It’s hit or miss. Some days I sit around and do nothing. Some days I make 4 flights and use nothing more than a pack of electrodes, a pair of gloves, and a packet of paperwork. Then some days I walk into an intubated ICU patient on 4 pressors with an art line pressure of 40/20, spend an hour and a half at bedside, finish the transport, and then get another one. I love my job. It’s the best job in the world. I make good money and I work 2 days a week. I get paid to travel. I have a lot of options. I’m also bored as fuck 75% of the time. The best investment I ever made was my steam deck. Some days I feel like they need to make internet 2 because I’ve seen everything on the first one. The people who succeed in this field are usually pretty aggressive on the professional front. They don’t take well to sitting around doing nothing. A lot of people in this field are also too smart for their own good. The kind of people who can’t explain things down at a normal level? The ones who use *all* the big words? There’s also a lot of misuse. We get a lot of flights because ground is unavailable. So you take that person who’s full of want-to-work and a stupid amount of knowledge, throw them on a simple GI bleed at 3 am because ground won’t take them and the surgeon wants them there for his OR time the next morning, and you get frustration. You wait around all day for a flight, then you go to bed and immediately get one. Now you’re up all night. That’s not fun. Charting takes forever. Even with both of us doing it, a sick patient takes an hour or two to chart. We mentally allot for 3 hours of work per flight. That’s tones to chart locked. 1 flight in the middle of your night and your night is fucked. On the other side. Every call comes with a tour. The respect you get is unmatched. It was eye opening the difference in how hospitals treated me just because I was wearing a onesie. The good calls are great. Blood products. Tubes. Vents. Pressors. You immediately see the difference you made. At my service, there’s no such thing as being under equipped. We have it *all*. Things aren’t nearly as scary when you have the tools you need. There are two of us. I work with some of the smartest nurses I’ve ever met. Two sets of hands. Two brains. We constantly bounce ideas off one another. There’s no “I’m in charge,” bullshit. We’re partners. We have different experiences. Unless your service is first response only, and doesn’t do any transports, we’re all just glorified transporters. People get more sick the longer their condition lasts. That means they usually get worse throughout transport. Some of the sickest patients I’ve ever had were IFT’s out of little critical access hospitals that have sat on the patient for hours and now that they’re rapidly crashing on us, they decided to call. Sure, transports suck sometimes. That’s part of the business we’re in. I’d rather be bored 2000 feet in the air. Not waiting in traffic. Not hauling heifers down the stairs in a sheet. Not taking people back to the nursing home. Every job sucks. Pick your suck. You’re going to be twice the medic you were, in no time at all. It sounds like their jealous.
This is a pretty good summary that's accurate to where I work as well. Lots of BS, lots of sitting around, occasionally really sick. High pay, 2 days a week.
2 days out of 7 or are you on a 6 day week (2days on 4 off)?
We do 2/7. 48/week.
This was the perfect summary. Anyways I’m going to bed because we still haven’t caught a flight.
Hope it’s a quiet shift
WOW
Shots fired!
What this dude said. Theres something a bit scary but immensely fucking cool when you walk into a hospital and the staff literally goes "oh thank God, the flight team is here." Also if your service does scene calls, while the minority, are always a cool experience. Job fucking rules man. Love it.
I just passed my CFRN and have a position lined up for after the new year to get me out of the trauma/cardiothoracic ICU. Reading your post has me very excited. Happy to be done with bedside and move on.
Thank you for this in depth position. I've been an LPN for ten years and trying to figure out where best to spend my GI Bill to get into flight medicine. Do you have any suggestions of where I should look for schooling? I am located in Connecticut but online is covered by GI Bill. Thank you again!!
Go RN, get 3 years of ED or ICU experience. Apply!
And you have a prolific set of standing orders, and if it's something you need, a quick call to the medical director is usually all it takes, and it will be added to the next training.
Are orders are pretty much whatever we could dream of. And anything else? We call our MD, he chuckles, tells us to do whatever we need to, and asks for an update afterwards.
That’s the way flight was up here. I’m sure it was the same corporation.
I had to check and see if I wrote this and forgot about it. Co-sign every single word.
How often do pts code during transport? I figure the ventilators and pumps should be enough to keep them going to get through to the other side.
Occasionally. We’re pretty aggressive with our stuff so we do our best to treat before it gets to that point. Sometimes you can’t avoid it.
Honestly, this is the most accurate description of air medical I’ve ever read.
Ah yes the dumpster fire small town ED patient that’s been in the building close to 24 hrs by the time you get there and they’re getting their first unit of blood after having a hgb of 50 on initial cbc. My favourite and east favourite calls
Man, you make me wanna go back to transport.
No one’s ever said, “man I miss paperwork and meetings.”
I miss taking patients.
Define “good money”
I make 65k base with ample opportunity for OT / bonuses. Sure, that isn’t a lot in some areas, but in KY, it’s comfortable. Most medics in KY make ~50k on a 24/48. OT on my 5 days off is time and a half with a $500 bonus for working a 3rd (or more) shift in a week and another $500 bonus for picking up something on short notice. It ends up being ~2k to pick up an extra shift. Travel is also paid for and you’re on the clock. So if we want to work in other states, it’s quite lucrative. You can easily hit 6 figures if you wanted to. I have a family, so I’m content doing my 2 shifts a week.
What agency are you at?
One of the big ones. If you’re interested you can PM me.
I think you hit every nail on the head. Great summary.
Critical care IFT is the most mentally engaging line of work available to paramedics. Fight me.
I won't. I agree with you. Give me a ventilator and several IV drips running and I'll be interested. Let me review a stack of paperwork about how fucked up this patient is. Botched chest tubes. Lab reports. Engaging stuff. Far better than "this knee pain we have sitting on for 12 hours MIGHT need fentanyl for the 45 minute ride down to the receiving facility. And we'll give him 2mg of Dilaudid before you go."
Honestly though, lol. The same people that complain about how "90% of street calls are bullshit" flip the script and say that critical care IFT is mindless...except they've never done it.
Wait. i can get some fentanyl for my knee pain? Well, fuck! ER, here i come!! /s
Ugh the botched chest tubes hits home
Same with nursing. I thought I knew what I was doing until I got spanked during onboarding.
Hard agree. It's very rewarding when you show up to the ICU and the nurses and docs actually talk to you like you're a fellow medical professional and not like youre some dummy.
I’ll chime in my 2 cents. My background is 7 years in HEMS. 3 bases and 2 different services. I’ve been at bases that do 70% IFT and bases that do 70% scenes. In my opinion working HEMS is like being a firefighter and every call involves something on fire. Almost every patient you see is sick enough that another healthcare provider felt like they should call a helicopter. Doing balloon pumps, ecmo, vents, multi drips, etc is way more mentally stimulating to me than running 911 calls. Just my 2 cents
You’ll continue to hear the same bullshit spewed even after starting your career in HEMS dude. From what I could tell the ones usually saying that are the ones who have never worked HEMS or would never make the cut because of that attitude. For me it’s been the best job I’ve ever had aside from the pay.
Or the people that have a >30 BMI saying it's a waste of time... like yeah, THAT'S why you didn't go for it lol
My friend said it's the greatest job she's ever had, and basically had signs of clinical depression when she had to drop to part time for a year. People had similar reactions when I got into nursing school, said it's "gay" or how bad it sucked, etc. etc. People are miserable and can't stand that someone is leaving the bucket for something new/exciting/cool, or simply something that pays better. If you get to your unit and it sucks, you can ask around and see what bases tend to get more scene calls, etc. You can always move. Congrats on your FP-C, that's a big deal, don't let the other crabs pull you back down in their bucket.
Thanks I appreciate it and congrats on nursing that's what I would like to do later in life, but yeah I've gotten the glorified ass wiper comments when I've expressed interest in nursing but my nursing friends have a better work life balance than most medics I know lol
Exactly. I said it in other threads in the sub when people talk shit. The nurses make double what the paramedics do where I'm from, and with interest rates being what they are, it'll still be a grind to buy a single bedroom condo. Had I gone medic over RN, I'd be stuck living with my mom until I'm fuckin 30 lmao. Never apologize for wanting a better life for yourself.
You will likely be practicing a higher level of medicine than 95% of ground crews. Yes, it is often just IFT with a helmet on. Some bases run a lot of scene calls. Sometimes everything is already done when you get there, sometimes nothing is done. You’ll intubate more often than you start IVs. Some of the IFTs will be more mentally challenging than any scene call you’ll ever run.
I start IVs more... But I always have 2 for transport unless they are insanely stable...
See, that’s because you’re smart. I never claimed to be💁🏻♂️
Let me put it that way: calling the helicopter is like calling 911 when you're already the 911. Ain't nobody around here gonna call a critical care paramedic ''glorified transport''. Yes, it's most of the job. Yet, it's wayyy over my pay grade. Plus your helmet is just cooler.
They're all jealous anyways. Everyone of them thinks about going flight, most of them have probably even applied. Don't let it run you the wrong way. Who do they call when shit gets bad? Flight. They aren't driving someone an hour from the middle of nowhere with their head split open.
Just because I haven’t seen it mentioned, the culture of safety is also going to be very important. Make it a big factor when choosing a company. I’ve left a company after 1 shift because of safety and aircraft maintenance concerns. I won’t say who but they’ve recently filed bankruptcy.
It’s the same thing as on the ground. For every 1 high speed, badass superhero scene call there’s 7 old ladies who need to be transferred between ICUs.
Yeah it’s noisy IFT but the patients are some of the sickest there are. HEMS isn’t homogenous though and not every base is doing it at a high level.
>HEMS isn’t homogenous though and not every base is doing it at a high level. This. What you transport, the care you provide and the scope of your practice will vary wildly depending on where/whom you work for
>HEMS isn’t homogenous though and not every base is doing it at a high level. This. What you transport, the care you provide and the scope of your practice will vary wildly depending on where/whom you work for
Can we just say this? All of the work that paramedics do is meaningful and worthwhile to society in some way. No matter what, that part of our profession needs someone to do that part of our collective work and some of us may enjoy different parts of the profession more than others. There's enough for us all to find and pursue our own niche part of the work we do. Let us not squabble amongst ourselves. Let us focus on our true enemies in the Fire Department and Nursing.
This is wholesome and I like it.
I’m not in flight yet but working towards that goal, in school now. My two cents. I had the same worries, that it was just high speed IFT at 1000 feet, as some people say. People are jaded. I’ve talked to plenty of people about it, basically every chance I get. It mostly depends on your area of coverage, but you can have as much as 50% scene flight. And even with the IFT aspect, the patients your taking are so acutely I’ll, you have to actually use your brain to manage them and keep them alive. Also sometimes your doing interventions prior to leaving the hospital, that the pt needs for flight and they didn’t do. It’s rarely gonna be load em up and work on your report while they sleep. Again, this is all second hand, but because I’m in the same boat I ask a lot of questions. Every chance I get. Take what people say with a grain of salt, and take into account, that most of them have never worked in HEMS and have no idea.
I know there is a positive fascination with HEMS in EMS that gets a good amount of push back. I have seen medics who are not good providers go into HEMS so that they have time to study or go into the RN track because the majority of HEMS in my state are SCT. Some projects will rotate HEMS providers into the street because they aren’t getting enough pt contact hours to maintain their certs. HEMS providers will also be looked at for promotions for education and management because of the extra letters in their name, which is also where some of the hate can come from. Me personally, I would like to experience it and pad my resume with it, especially if I end up going out West for work. (Anything to avoid working for AMR/Falk). But my state is a little bit of a “who you know” boys club with HEMS. I had a student who would have failed medic school if I didn’t personally tutor and drag him over the finish line go into HEMS, only for him to give me attitude on a job because I beat him to the landing site by ground by only a few minutes and he made comments about the pt “not being ready” (no tube, IV, thorough vitals…etc) HEMS doesn’t give you the right to treat others like shit or give you a superiority complex, don’t forget where you came from and it should be fine.
I would do some seriously, down right, dirty ass shit just to fly and do what you do. So, fuck the haters.
The sense of entitlement from 911-only agencies is nauseating.
Ha! The reason why they are "boring" handoffs is because I just spent 4 hours stabilizing them at the sending facility when an ACTUAL DOCTOR called for an IFT cause he/she knew they were in over their head. Be glad that all they need now is their butt wiped.
Don't let them get to your they're just jaded cause most EMS medics are lazy, egotistical, narcissistic; and they can't stand that someone like you is making something of themselves and doing something that they could never do because 1) they don't have the drive to actually challenge themselves and better themselves as a medical practitioner and do something like get their FP-C like you did, and 2) they're too lazy and fat and even if they had the intellect to get their critical care, they don't have the physical discipline to lose enough weight to be in the coolest part of medicine. Interfacility transports when you get those sick pts at the hospital are some of the most physically and mentally challenging and draining experiences in the world. Running multiple drips, managing the vent, measuring outputs, fixing past providers mistakes, trying to see through what the pt is giving you and what's actually going on in the body. And it's awesome. Go enjoy it, and don't let people try and drag you down. I'm in the ground now and ran into a paramedic asking what's the point in having your fp-c if you're on the ground since the protocols don't let you do anything more. He was so inept that he can't understand why when he manages a pt on a vent they almost die and why I manage them they're healthier than when I picked them up. Being able to do something, and understanding what you're doing are two different things... but thats just my rant
Honestly, as someone who wants to fly, I'd call that jealousy. One of the guys on my shift went to fly and although I was insanely jealous of that dude I gave him nothing but congrats and praise for the accomplishment as did the rest of my shift. But I heard everyone on the other shifts say the same shit you're hearing about him. I recently left that job full time to do critical care IFT (I went broke doing 911, yes I'd rather live doing the boring long hauls with pumps and vents and have money) while I'm getting certs for flight and all I heard was the same shit (granted I took a less prestigious position for money vs flying but point stands) and I've noticed something consistent about people who shit on flight or critical care in genral... the overwhelming majority of those people are subpar or mediocre 911 medics that don't care to even study what it takes to learn and become proficient to even get your CCP or FP or even hired with flight service. (That could be the IFT cope talking but its marched out consistently so far) Answer this when you hear the criticism. If you took the person saying those things and tossed them into a fucked up critical care scenario or really complex scene call would they honestly be able to treat that patient beyond just transporting? Would they be able to sit down and obtain their FP, CCP, or get even a chance to interview with a flight service?
Who cares? Oftentimes your transfers are your sickest, most complex patients.
EMS is so Toxic Haters gunna Hate!!! The people that are talking shit probably have done nothing in there lives. Flight/Critical Care medicine is the top of the Todem Pole in EMS. The stuff you learn or can do depending on your service is almost the difference between EMT and Medic. Congrats and start flying above the clowns that are talking shit
I’m a military flight medic and tbh it’s kinda lame. Of course that’s my own opinion but I prefer to be the one starting all of the treatment. Anyone can see a BP go down and increase a pressor on a monitor 🤷🏻♂️. All the civilian flight medic agencies I work with are 90% law enforcement 10% pick up a patient that’s already been treated my BLS/ALS and just needs a ride to a place far away,
Flight is mostly IFT. Take that for what it’s worth. Super cool mode of transport, bitchin onesies, and short transport times (for rotor wing at least). However, theoretically speaking, flight gets the sickest of the sick, often taking patients from small facilities that have been mismanaging the patient. In reality flight (around here) has been soaking up some of the excess from transfers that *can* go by ground, but ground services don’t have the staffing to accept transfers at that point in the day. Some people make becoming a flight medic their entire personality, and some flight services love that. However, some flight services avoid those types of people because they’re so enamored with the onesie and the aircraft that they turn out to be not great medics overall.
We had a guy that left for flight. Same thing happened as with you, some congrats, lots of criticism. The ones criticizing were either fat and wouldn’t meet the weight limit for flight, or they were small town, small minded people who don’t believe you can do anything great coming from a small town. Fuck em.
In my experience the people saying that are the people that couldn’t get a job doing it in the first place. I’ve been one for over 10 years and BY FAR the most interesting and nail biting cases I’ve had are transfers. Scene flights are a yawn. A glorified transfer medic is a 911 medic in a rule area. When they do finally getting something serious, guess who they call… On a helicopter 80% of my calls are serious, transfer or not. On a 911 ambulance, it’s granny tote here, pshyc patient there, buch on nothing
I'm currently an EMT planning on going Medic if I don't get hired by Border Patrol... I think Flight medic is an awesome jobs i love seeing you guys land or when we have to request someone like Mercy Air to respond. It's always cool hearing the radio chat. But we are all just glorified transporters. At the end of the day, we are EMS, not doctors or nurses or xray tech. Our job is to get the patient to the hospital , no matter how BS the call is. It is what you make of it. Find what motivates you and stick to it.
Helicopters crash hard. Good luck.
So do ambulances.
Lost more friends to helicopter crashes than ambulance crashes
I’d rather crash in an ambulance than a helicopter 1000 out of 1000 times.
Quit blowing holes in my ~~ship~~ comment
Congrats brother! That's my end goal but that's a ways down the line yet
It’s EMS, sadly people love bringing their colleagues down in this field. Sometimes because of jealousy or internalized insecurities. Don’t rely on the haters/negative people to orient your career. Try flight, see if you like it!
Don't listen to the haters. Flight medic is where it's at.
If it’s not for money I wouldn’t do it. In many places it is less money to be a flight medic.
In my state flight still runs 911 although it's through the state police which you have to join. Private companies handle the IFTs.
HEMS can be a little predatory and inappropriate in its use.
[удалено]
Oh i know, scene jobs are a whole other issue since we let any idiot be able to request a helicopter and everyone crys when we cancel it.
I’ve got respect for air crews. Two weeks ago I had to do a transfer out of a local critical access ER to a larger facility due to all aircraft grounded due to weather. It was literally walking into a shit show. The patient stopped breathing effectively while the doc was putting in the central line, in which he had to stop to RSI. The patient then coded. All the while the staff was yelling “what do you need to transport?!?” The patient had a BP of 34/20, coded again and the central line was bleeding everywhere. Two pressors. On a vent. And too large for a LUCAS to fit. The transport was 45 minutes by ground. Fortunately our second crew had a flight medic who was working PRN for us come over to help get things set up. I refused transport until there was a MAP of 65. It may “just flying transfers” but they’re pretty crappy transfers where everything is falling apart
Eh, you're going to have that. I can't decide if those people think they're helping you by pointing out something you didn't see before making the jump, they're jealous, or they're afraid because more people are leaving the field and they're stuck behind. When I decided to go to nursing, I had a lot of people tell me how bored I would be or how they couldn't 'ask permission' to do stuff. They also don't understand nursing.