How to Become a Flight Nurse
If you want a nursing role outside the typical clinical setting, you might be interested in becoming a flight nurse. To become a flight nurse, you have several paths you can take.
Becoming a flight nurse could require some of these common steps:
- Become a registered nurse (RN).
- Gain experience in emergency medicine by working in an emergency department, ICU or trauma unit.
- Consider seeking certification as a flight nurse.
What Is a Flight Nurse?
A flight nurse is a registered nurse who transports patients by helicopter or plane to a medical facility. Patients may be critically injured or severely ill, and the Board of Certification for Emergency Nursing (BCEN) describes flight nursing as safely transporting critically ill and injured patients.
The nurse may be transporting them from the scene of an accident to an emergency room or from one medical facility to another, and the Air & Surface Transport Nurses Association (ASTNA) names both scene and interfacility transports as part of transport practice.
A flight nurse is a specialized kind of critical care nurse and needs experience in emergency medicine. PHI Air Medical, for example, lists current critical care or emergency experience as a hiring requirement for its flight nurses. Because their job involves transporting patients, flight nurses are sometimes called transport nurses, although transport nursing is a broader field, as the answer to the transport nurse question below explains.
There are many ways to meet the qualifications for a flight nurse job. Here are some common ways to become a flight nurse.
The first step to becoming a flight nurse is to become a registered nurse, which requires completing a nursing education program that meets your state board of nursing’s requirements and passing a licensing exam. You may complete an associate degree program, a nursing diploma program or a bachelor’s degree in nursing. After finishing your coursework, you must pass the National Council Licensure Examination (NCLEX-RN), the licensure exam developed by the National Council of State Boards of Nursing (NCSBN). Passing the NCLEX-RN is one step toward RN licensure. NCSBN says you must first apply to the nursing regulatory body where you want to be licensed to become eligible to take the exam, and AACN notes that state board of nursing approval is what allows a program’s graduates to sit for the licensing examinations. Check with your state board of nursing for any other licensing requirements.
If you earn an associate degree or diploma first, you may complete a bachelor’s degree in nursing later through an RN-to-BSN program, which AACN describes as an efficient bridge for diploma and ADN-prepared nurses. AACN also reports that many professional practice settings, including Magnet hospitals and academic health centers, now require or prefer the baccalaureate degree for specific nursing roles. If you want to go further, you may find an RN-to-MSN program that lets you complete both a bachelor’s and master’s in nursing, and AACN reports that many of these programs award both the baccalaureate and master’s degree on completion.
Because a flight nurse works with patients who need critical care, employers look for hands-on experience with critical care or emergency patients. After becoming a registered nurse, look for work in an emergency department, trauma unit or intensive care unit to gain the experience you need to work as a flight nurse. Requirements vary by employer. PHI Air Medical lists a minimum of three years of current critical care or emergency experience, with five years preferred, and prefers flight or transport experience. BCEN’s recommendation for CFRN candidates is shorter, as the next step explains. It’s also a good idea to know something about aviation and be comfortable traveling in a plane if you plan to become a flight nurse.
Once you’ve gained experience in a critical care setting, you may want to pursue certification, and employers set their own requirements and timing. ASTNA’s FAQs say board certifications such as the CFRN may be required either as a prerequisite or, more commonly, within one to two years of hire. The Board of Certification for Emergency Nursing (BCEN) offers a Certified Flight Registered Nurse (CFRN) credential. To take the exam, you must hold a current, unencumbered registered nurse license in the United States, a U.S. territory, Canada or Australia, or a foreign nursing certificate equivalent to a U.S. RN license that is verified through TruMerit, according to BCEN’s eligibility requirements. BCEN recommends at least two years of experience in your specialty area before you schedule the exam, but experience isn’t mandatory. BCEN says the certification is valid for four years. As of September 2026, BCEN’s CFRN fee page lists a self-pay initial exam fee of $380, or $285 for ASTNA members.
Not every employer requires you to hold a CFRN, but certification can help you prove your qualifications. Some employers may accept applicants who aren’t certified but require them to gain certification to maintain employment as a flight nurse. PHI Air Medical, for example, asks flight nurses to earn the CFRN within 24 months of hire.
Employers may ask for other training as well. PHI Air Medical’s posting lists current basic life support (BLS), advanced cardiac life support (ACLS) and pediatric advanced life support (PALS) certification, plus one of several trauma course credentials it names. ASTNA also offers courses built for transport clinicians, including its Transport Professional Advanced Trauma Course (TPATC), which it designed for air and ground critical care transport clinicians.
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What Does a Flight Nurse Do?
You may be wondering, what does a flight nurse do? The responsibilities of a flight nurse may vary from day to day, depending on the medical service provider they work for. Some organizations that employ flight nurses include air medical providers and hospitals with an affiliated aeromedical or critical care ground transport service, as ASTNA’s FAQs describe. PHI Air Medical, an air medical provider, describes its flight nurses as working on rotor-wing and fixed-wing aircraft as well as ground ambulance transports.
Flight nurses may care for a wide range of patients. ASTNA’s FAQs list neonates, pediatrics, obstetrics, geriatrics, and neurological, cardiac and trauma patients among the patients a transport nurse may see, and BCEN says flight nurses’ patients span all ages.
Flight nurses assess patients throughout the transport. BCEN says the flight nurse and their clinical partner must assess, triage and determine the appropriate treatment, and ASTNA’s FAQs describe the ability to conduct rapid assessments and reassessments, and to keep adjusting the plan during transport, as keys to success. ASTNA also notes that transport nurses work with a set of protocols and radio or satellite phone contact with the program’s medical control physician. According to BCEN, flight nurses also comfort and communicate with their patient, coordinate every activity with their clinical partner, interact with the pilot and update the receiving facility. PHI Air Medical lists documentation of treatments during stabilization and transport among its flight nurses’ responsibilities.
Personal Traits and Skills of a Flight Nurse
Flight nurses often care for patients with serious illnesses or injuries. Personal traits of a flight nurse could include the ability to remain calm in a stressful or hectic atmosphere, focus on the patient and react quickly if the patient’s condition changes. It’s beneficial for flight nurses to be skilled communicators who have the ability to convey the patient’s condition and history to the receiving facility and reassure patients and their families during the flight.
BCEN describes flight nurses as tolerating weather and temperature extremes and enduring high noise levels and confined spaces, while using compact and portable versions of the essential equipment and supplies found in emergency rooms.
Flight Nurse Associations
If you’re interested in this career, you might benefit from joining one of the various flight nurses associations that provide career resources and networking opportunities.
ASTNA—Air & Surface Transport Nurses Association is a nonprofit member organization that works to advance the practice of transport nursing. ASTNA reports approximately 2,700 members. It offers education courses for transport clinicians, publishes the Air Medical Journal as its official journal, and offers networking opportunities and scholarships.
Salary for Flight Nurses
The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) doesn’t report flight nurses as a separate occupation in its wage data. However, the BLS does report that the median annual wage for registered nurses was $97,550 in May 2025. The lowest-paid 10% of registered nurses earned $68,940 or less, and the highest-paid 10% earned $137,470 or more. Since becoming a flight nurse requires you to become an RN first, this can be a salary measurement to consider. If you become a nurse practitioner, you may earn a higher wage. The BLS shows that nurse practitioners had a median annual wage of $132,300 in May 2025.
Flight nurse pay varies by employer. PHI Air Medical says its flight nurse pay range is based on region, certifications, and years of flight and critical care experience, and lists shift bonuses and an annual safety bonus among its benefits.
You may have questions about becoming a flight nurse. Here are the answers to some common questions about this career.
Flight Nurse FAQs
The most important requirement to becoming a flight nurse is being a registered nurse. BCEN requires a current, unencumbered RN license, or a foreign nursing certificate equivalent to a U.S. RN license that is verified through TruMerit, to sit for the CFRN exam, and PHI Air Medical requires an active RN license in the state where you work. To become an RN, you must complete a nursing education program and pass a national licensing exam, and NCSBN says you must first apply to your nursing regulatory body to become eligible for the exam. In addition, your state may have other requirements.
Beyond the license, employers set their own requirements. PHI Air Medical’s posting lists a minimum of three years of current critical care or emergency experience (five preferred), current BLS, ACLS and PALS certification, and the CFRN within 24 months of hire. Experience in a critical care or emergency nursing setting, such as an ICU or emergency room, can help you meet that requirement.
Information last updated: October 2026