Are you confident yet humble? Inexperienced but eager? Do you think you have what it takes to be a flight nurse? Addison, TX-based Omniflight Helicopters Inc., with bases throughout the U.S., is ready to put you to the test and help you spread your wings.
ADRENALINE & AUTONOMY: The Take Flight Program is testing a theory that rookie nurses can be molded into qualified flight clinicians within 6 months. courtesy Omniflight Helicopters Inc.

While 3-5 years of clinical experience in critical care is considered a standard for entry into the air medical industry, Rick Rambo, JD, RN, vice president of clinical services, and Jason Varsch, RN, CCRN, at Omniflight believe certain people - those with the right attitude and character - can gain the necessary knowledge and experience in just 6 months. Their belief in this idea is so strong they developed a training regimen to test it. One year since its launch, the Take Flight Program is already producing qualified professional flight clinicians.

"We are having difficulty competing on a salary level with hospitals," Rambo said. "We can't sell an equivalent salary to recruit these hospital-experienced clinicians. We sell adrenaline and autonomy. We are selling the idea of a pager going off in the early morning hours. It's the rush of throwing on your flight suit and going out to the aircraft, performing your safety checks, feeling the engine rotors start up and smelling jet fuel. Then you take off into the sunrise to one of the most challenging environments in healthcare."

The minimum requirements for the Take Flight Program are a valid nursing license, 12-18 months of nursing experience, certifications in BLS/CPR, ACLS and PALS, and an advanced trauma certification. "Maybe more important," Rambo said, "an innate drive to be the best of the best." The application process includes an essay, an interview with a selection panel and participation in a "ride-along," which serves as a second interview and as an opportunity for the Omniflight team to see how an applicant handles the reality of flight medicine.

"What we're really looking for is not necessarily someone who has the brilliance of a clinician, but someone who has the potential to become a brilliant clinician with the right kind of guidance," Rambo added. "We look for individuals with a certain attitude, a certain moxie, a certain type-A personality, with the ability to learn and the ability to be very critical of themselves as they adapt to this type of changing environment."

'Grueling Educational Boot Camp'
Upon acceptance into the Take Flight Program, trainees are immediately immersed into the intense world of flight medicine. Each 24-hour shift begins with regular check-offs: drug counts, stocking inventory, reports, debriefings and other duties of the day. What comes next may vary.

"There is some built-in flexibility," Varsch, the program manager, said. "We could be in the middle of a lecture when we're paged on a call. You immediately go into flight-clinician mode, and then after your flight charts, after you restock and all that, you downshift and go right back into student mode. We could be flying all day long and have all night off, so you might get a lecture at 1 a.m. and be expected to know that information for your next class, because you will be tested. Individuals in this program are tested all day long. It's a fair warning: every single day, everything you do is a test, and every test is an opportunity to step up and succeed."

Varsch describes the Take Flight Program as 6 months of "grueling educational boot camp." He insists that going out on flights - perhaps intubating a patient or inserting a chest tube - is the easy part, "the part that's going to give you a break." Satisfying the educational requirements and mastering the technical skill sets, while being a team player and maintaining a positive attitude, is the true challenge.

"Individuals in this program have the right to succeed and they have the right to fail," Varsch said. "We don't want anyone to fail. We will help you succeed. But you have to be able to rise to the occasion. We provide the tools. Our mentors are dedicated. We'll purchase textbooks, give extra lessons - whatever it takes to engrain the knowledge and skill sets into our candidates. It's ultimately up to them and their attitude."

Defining Success
Rambo and Varsch each hold their own view of success for the Take Flight Program and its participants, and their respective views are consistent with their roles in the organization.

Rambo perceives success as Omniflight providing an environment where participants grow as individuals and as clinicians, developing "a love in their soul, a passion for flight medicine."
"We should not take lightly the impact we have the potential to make in the lives of our patients and their families at the most intimate times of their lives," he said. "When we land at the side of the road and you see the look in the faces of these people as you exit the aircraft, that look of, 'Thank God you are here' - we must be humble with the privilege we have been given and be proud of the moment we have been given, the opportunity we have been given, to serve our fellow man as healthcare professionals. Not just the patient and his family, but your colleague nurse, paramedic, respiratory therapist, physician - everyone who has called upon your skills at that time. This is the type of leadership I expect from every one of our independent clinicians at Omniflight. I expect it and I demand it, and when I see it, that is success."

Varsch, on the other hand, sees success in survival and how graduates measure up against flight clinicians with years of experience. He acknowledges that the program is designed to push people to their limits. He also attests to the quality of the program, claiming it is as good as any program being offered at any hospital in the U.S., an opinion that is based on years of experience in emergency medicine at several Ivy League institutions.

"We [as flight clinicians] have a very tough job," he said. "Sometimes our patients don't live, but we can get them to their families to say goodbye. Sometimes they do live, and we've done that. We allow fathers to go home to sons, and we are very, very proud of that. The ultimate test of success for graduates of the Take Flight Program is how they handle these situations, whether they can stand toe-to-toe with the experienced flight clinicians who have been doing this and whether they can be seen as equals."

Hitting the Mark

So far the Take Flight Program has graduated two trainees. One was offered and accepted a flight-clinician position with Omniflight, and the other was not offered a position but is working as a clinician for a major metropolitan EMS system.

Two trainees are currently enrolled in the program: one from Michigan who is training at an Omniflight base in Arizona, and the other from Alabama who is training at a base in his home state. Omniflight also offers the program at bases in New Mexico, Texas, Montana, Idaho, Georgia and South Carolina. The company has operations in 11 other states as well.

The Take Flight Program accepts applications from across the country. Those who are accepted into the program are eligible to receive reimbursement for relocation expenses. All program participants receive a salary, and Omniflight covers the cost of license transfer to the appropriate state.

"We are testing a theory that we can mold moderately experienced nurses into qualified flight clinicians," Rambo said. "There is a risk that we will pay for everything and lose the investment, but that is the cost of recruiting the best individuals for the job. This program also provides an opportunity to improve ourselves as clinicians and as educators. It's kind of like playing a sport. You want to play with someone who is better than you. It allows you to grow, to improve, to become the best you can be. That's what flight clinicians are. We're the best of the best, at the pinnacle of our profession."

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