Our mission at MedFlight911 Air Ambulance is to get our patients from point A to point B as safely, quickly, and comfortably as possible.  For some patients, that means an air ambulance.  For others, it’s an air medical escort on a commercial flight.  For others it’s a commercial medical escort via motor coach.  But whatever the type of medical transportation, one thing is consistent: by the patient’s side every step of the way is at least one member of the MedFlight911 Air Ambulance medical personnel.

MedFlight911 air medical transport personnel qualifications

All MedFlight911 air medical personnel are highly experienced and extensively trained in their respective specialties. Physicians are board-certified in emergency medicine. Critical care flight nurses, paramedics and respiratory therapists are licensed and carry specialized certifications above the normal requirements.

Before working for MedFlight911, all registered nurses and paramedics are required to have at least the following core certifications:

  • Advanced Cardiac Life Support (ACLS)
  • Basic Life Support (BLS)
  • Neonatal Resuscitation (NRP)
  • Pediatric Advanced Life Support (PALS)
  • Pre-hospital Trauma Life Support (PHTLS)

Many air ambulance service providers don’t require their medical personnel to have training beyond those core certifications.  But at MedFlight911 we also require advanced transport certification for all of our registered nurses and paramedics.  Those certifications include:

  • Advanced Trauma Life Support (ATLS)
  • Critical Care Emergency Medical Technician Paramedic (CCEMTP)
  • Certified Critical Care Registered (CCRN)
  • Certified Emergency Nurse (CEN)
  • Certified Flight Paramedic (FP-C)
  • Certified Flight Registered Nurse (CFRN)
  • Transport Nurse Advance Trauma Course (TNATC)

Of course, we all know that certifications are one thing, and experience quite another.  So in addition to the core and advanced certifications we require our air ambulance personnel to hold, we also require rigorous air medical transport training.  Orientation alone includes:

  • Advanced and alternative airway management
  • Altitude physiology/flight stressors
  • Anatomy, physiology and assessment for adult, pediatric & neonatal patients
  • Burn emergencies
  • Cardiac emergencies & advanced cardiac critical care
  • Environmental emergencies
  • Equipment education including hemodynamic monitoring, pacemakers, AICD, central lines, IABP, pulmonary artery & arterial catheters, ventricular assist devices and ECMO
  • High risk obstetric emergencies
  • Mechanical ventilation and respiratory physiology for adult, pediatric and neonatal patients
  • Metabolic endocrine emergencies
  • Multi-trauma
  • Neonatal emergencies
  • Oxygen therapy in medical transport environment
  • Pediatric medical emergencies
  • Pediatric trauma
  • Pharmacology
  • Respiratory emergencies
  • Stress recognition & management
  • Survival training
  • Toxicology

And once on the MedFlight911 Air Ambulance team, all medical personnel are required to do 100 hours of continuing education every year.  That continuing education includes:

  • Hazardous materials recognition & response
  • Infection control
  • Stress recognition & management
  • Survival training
  • Critical care for adult, pediatric and neonatal patients
  • Emergency/trauma care
  • Invasive procedure labs including a minimum of 5 intubations per year
  • Labor and delivery

Clearly, at MedFlight911 Air Ambulance we set high standards for our air medical transport personnel.  Why?  It goes back to our core mission: to get our patients from point A to point B as safely, quickly, and comfortably as possible.  That requires the best of the best medical flight crew.