Transcript
Chapters
00:00 Introduction to Flight Nursing Journey
02:00 Pathway to Becoming a Flight Nurse
03:26 A Day in the Life of a Flight Nurse
06:33 Challenges and Rewards in Flight Nursing
06:55 Certifications and Training for Flight Nurses
08:33 Autonomy in Flight Nursing
09:48 Work-Life Balance in Flight Nursing
11:18 Advice for Aspiring Flight Nurses
Ellie Kirkpatrick (00:01)
Hi everyone, welcome to the non-traditional nurse. I am excited to kick off our very first interview with an incredible guest, Collette, who just recently celebrated her four-year anniversary as a flight nurse. So, congrats on that Collette. Today we’re going to take a look at her unique journey, talk about what inspired her to pursue this non-traditional nursing path and see what it’s really like to work in such a unique role. So, Collette, thank you so much for joining us today.
Collette Merriott (00:12)
Thank you.
You’re welcome. Thanks for having me.
Ellie Kirkpatrick (00:29)
And can you start out by just telling us a little bit about yourself and what led you to becoming a flight nurse?
Collette Merriott (00:35)
Yeah, absolutely. So I went to University of Detroit Mercy for a nursing school with Ellie. And there I kind of found a passion for ER nursing. But originally when I graduated, I had to work in med search first. They wouldn’t hire new grads into ED. So, I did a few years of experience there and then I finally got to go to the ED and I absolutely loved it. And there I was introduced to flight nursing by a flight nurse who worked for a program that’s over on the east side of the state of Michigan. And he kind of said, you’d be good at this and are you interested? I always thought that you had to have a military background to do flight nursing. So, it was never on my radar when I was in college or in the beginning of my career. But after he said that, then I went and did a shadow day at their base. And I absolutely loved it. So I was like, this is definitely what I want to pursue.
From there, they kind of coached me. They said I would need to have ICU experience as well as get my paramedic license in the state of Michigan. While I was in the ED, I worked on getting my paramedic license and then I went to ICU and got some years of experience there. Eventually a position on the other side of the state here in West Michigan at Aeromed opened up and so I applied and got the job. That’s where I’ve been for the last four years.
Ellie Kirkpatrick (02:00)
Awesome. And is there something like specific that really inspired you to pursue flight nursing?
Collette Merriott (02:15)
Yeah, absolutely. I’d say really flight nursing is a nice mix of ER and ICU. And so I got kind of my basic foundations in med surg. And then when I went to ED. There, you kind of learn that fast pace, kind of keep you on your toes, anything from infants to geriatric. And then in ICU, it’s kind of more specific to critical care. And I felt like both of those were absolutely necessary before I could become a flight nurse. In flight nursing we’re taking care of babies to geriatrics and it’s a mix between emergency medicine and critical care medicine. So really having that those years of experience helped me. Most flight programs will not hire you if you have less than five years of experience and ED, ICU, and some kind of pediatric experience. So, they require all of that just so you have a good knowledge base to be able to take care of your patients.
Ellie Kirkpatrick (03:26)
Yeah, absolutely. I’m sure that is critical since you probably see everything day to day. And that brings us to our next question, which I’m very excited to hear more about. So, I know it can probably vary a ton, but can you describe a typical day in your role as a flight nurse and then maybe talk about some of the most challenging and rewarding parts of that?
Collette Merriott (03:32)
Yes, so it varies. Like you said, it’s feast or famine. So sometimes we can have a shift where we have no calls. Sometimes we can have four calls. We’re gone all day. But I’d say a few typical calls would be probably a STEMI where we end up meeting an EMS crew at an airport and take the patient straight to Grand Rapids to a cath lab.
Another typical call would be a really sick ICU patient that is in a regional hospital and they need to come to a bigger city for some specialty care. And so those are both very sick patients, but their care differs so much. The STEMI can be awake talking to me and not really require much besides some pain medication and monitoring. The critical care patient might be sedated, intubated, and have some unstable vitals and on over six IV drips.
Ellie Kirkpatrick (04:48)
Absolutely. So, what would you say are some of the most challenging parts of the job and also some of the most rewarding parts of the job?
Collette Merriott (04:55)
Challenging, would say staying up on your education and knowledge. So, we have a lot of certifications. So, you need to be constantly aware of those and when you need to renew them. And then obviously medicine is always changing. So, we get new policies, new protocols. And so that’s kind of a big challenge, I would say, just staying on top of all of that. And then being willing to kind of change your thought process. Because sometimes it’s hard in medicine when you learn something is one way or a disease process should always look this way and we should always treat it this way. And then as more research comes out, you find you should treat it a different way. You have to train your mind to be open to that and say, okay, you were used to treating it this way, but we need to kind of change our thought process.
And then I’d say the rewarding part, of course, is good patient outcomes. So our medical director does a really good job of presenting at our meetings patient cases that we had and then their outcome. We don’t always get to hear about that, but it’s really nice to know that we can take someone who was in a very traumatic car crash, had a bunch of injuries. We did a lot of interventions for them and then to know months later that they’re out of the hospital, they’re walking and they’re back at home and resuming daily life, that’s absolutely rewarding. That’s kind of our goal each time we transfer a patient, obviously, is hoping that they can get back to some normal state in their life. So just giving them the best possible outcome is very rewarding.
Ellie Kirkpatrick (06:34)
It is so awesome that you can have some follow-up to some of those patients. I know how special that is as a nurse.
So, for someone that’s interested in doing this in the future, is that something to prepare ahead of time or that your job might prepare you after you get it? Or how would you go about getting those certifications?
Collette Merriott (06:55)
So, it just differs for each program. Every base has their own requirements and it differs from where you would apply. But in general, so for my company where I work right now, there’s a few that we had to have ahead of time and then a few that you can get once you hire in. But you need to have your ACLS, your PALS. I also have NRP (Neonatal Resuscitation Program), TNCC (The Trauma Nursing Core Course), PHTLS (Prehospital Trauma Life Support¬). And then after you hire in, you do have to pass your CFRN, certified flight registered nurse exam, and that has to be within two years of working at the program. And if you don’t pass, then they don’t allow you to stay essentially. So that exam is kind of a big one that you definitely want to pass. But that I did not have before I started working as a flight nurse. It was nice to start working to get some experience, learn more about flight, and then take that exam. There are several questions on there that are flight specific and before working at an air program I would not know the answers to a lot of those questions. And then I just in general I have a few extra certifications that aren’t necessary for my job, but I would say look better on a resume if you’re applying for a flight nurse job. And that would be like the CEN, so my certified emergency nurse, and then my CCRN, so critical care registered nurse certification as well.
Ellie Kirkpatrick (08:23)
Very impressive. Probably takes a whole alphabet to write those things out after your name.
Collette Merriott (08:28)
Yeah, yeah, it’s a little bit of alphabet soup after my name, yeah.
Ellie Kirkpatrick (08:33)
All right, and what do you feel like is the big differentiators that makes flight nursing different from other nursing roles and might make an attractive career path for someone?
Collette Merriott (08:45)
Well, Really the biggest thing that makes it different than a regular nursing role is the autonomy. you know, in a regular nursing role, there was always a provider not far away. So, when something’s happening with your patient or you need an order or you need to change something, you normally are going to a provider and getting orders from them or calling them or however you need to get in contact with them. In flight nursing, we practice under the umbrella of our medical director and we have a bunch of policies, but we have the autonomy with any scenario that we’re given on how to treat the patient. And so really that was the biggest change was that I can’t go to someone and be like, “Hey, what would you like to do?” It’s, what do I want to do? What do I want to do with my partner? What do we think’s best for the patient? What should we do next? So really changing gears from being able to just find someone to give you the answers to you needing to come up with the answers yourself and kind of know what’s best for the patient.
Ellie Kirkpatrick (09:48)
Yeah, that takes a lot of preparation to be ready for that type of autonomy. All right. And now a big question everyone has about, I think any nursing role, is work-life balance. So what does that look like in your role and how do you manage any demands?
Collette Merriott (09:53)
Yeah, you know, it was a little bit of work because our shifts are actually both day and night shifts and we rotate. So, we kind of have a 12-week rotating schedule. So, kind of learning how to balance that out of working a day shift and then two days later working a night shift. So, when do I need to take a nap? How to be well rested for my shift? Working that out. And I’ve got that down pretty well now. But I’d say t5he really taxing part of the job is that we get a lot of late calls. So, you will work your typical 12 hour shift, which we work 745 to 745. But if a call comes in at 730 and night shift’s not there yet, it’s ours to take. And if it’s appropriate for the pilot, like he won’t “time out” (is what we call it,) we go and we’re going to go do that. So, then that means a lot of times getting home late, you know, whether it’s nine or 10 o’clock. So, kind of learning that balance with that too. My husband kind of expects that when I’m working, there’s a good chance I’m going to come home late. And just kind of knowing that’s the expectation with the job.
Ellie Kirkpatrick (11:18)
Yeah, absolutely something to consider, but no stranger to nurses that the patient comes first, especially in these very high acuity situations. All right, so is there anything else you would want to share about your journey or any final advice that you could share for nurses that are really considering being a flight nurse in the future?
Collette Merriott (11:23)
Absolutely. I would say if it’s something that you’re very interested in doing to not give up and it takes a lot of work, a lot of dedication, but that’ll get you there. And there are a lot of things that I found helpful before I hired in. There are a bunch of podcasts out there and educational material that is kind of geared towards flight nursing to kind of give you an idea, but also kind of help your critical thinking.
One of my favorites was Heavy Lies the Helmet, and I still occasionally like listening to their podcasts. They are all flight providers and they’ll talk about one single topic for the whole podcast. And I really enjoyed that. But really trying to learn as much as you can and then get exposure. And then a lot of programs will let you do at least a visit, like a hanger visit, chat with one of the flight nurses. I would highly recommend that. And then some programs will let you do like a third rider program to see if you like it or not. So especially find out if you’re going to get motion sickness, things like that. You might think it sounds great, but then you get up there and realize maybe you couldn’t do that every day. So, I would highly recommend if someone’s really interested to reach out to a program that’s by them and see if they can come for a visit or a ride.
Ellie Kirkpatrick (13:08)
That is great advice. I have found that so valuable in any of my past career options to do a shadow shift and really see the culture, meet the staff. I think that’s so helpful.
Well, Collette, thank you so much for sharing your experiences and insights with us today. It has been awesome to hear about your journey and really what it takes to thrive and become a flight nurse. We really appreciate your time and all the amazing work you’re doing. And thanks again for being our first guest on the non-traditional nurse! And we will see you all next time. Thank you.
Collette Merriott (13:38)
No problem, thank you for having me.
