Becoming a flight paramedic

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Kais

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As I have already posted in my thread about our ems system: I am about to become a flight medic. The company that is about to hire me, wants me to do a couple of internships before I finally decide for the job. It's a position on an ambu-jet, fulltime, dealing with the more severe injured or ill patients. Therefore, they want me to take the FP-C exam during my first year. On the job training so to speak.

I want to make a good impression. I want to be prepared for this. I did some research for books to cover the FP-C exam. Some threads about this topic are a little bit out-dated. May be someone has a good advice for me regarding literature.

Thanks in advance.

kais
 
Kais said:
As I have already posted in my thread about our ems system: I am about to become a flight medic. The company that is about to hire me, wants me to do a couple of internships before I finally decide for the job. It's a position on an ambu-jet, fulltime, dealing with the more severe injured or ill patients. Therefore, they want me to take the FP-C exam during my first year. On the job training so to speak.

I want to make a good impression. I want to be prepared for this. I did some research for books to cover the FP-C exam. Some threads about this topic are a little bit out-dated. May be someone has a good advice for me regarding literature.

Thanks in advance.

kais
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Quite a few of these fixed-wing operators are very shady. How long have they been around? What is their employee turnover like? Have you spoken to any nurses or paramedics who've been there a long time? Who are they accredited by? Which state holds their licenses? What is the safety record of their aviation vendor? Do they have an actual medical director, or just some guy somewhere who they fax paperwork to for him to pencil-whip?

Just make sure you aren't being taken advantage of, or going into a potentially unsafe situation. Other than that, there are quite a few threads on here about getting into the air medical side of things.
 
It is a well known organisation with a good reputation. They exists since the mid 70s. The organisation itself is flying under the red cross, therefore high-risk jobs are possible and were mentioned during my interview. Jobs are done for the red cross, insurance companies, companies which work in crisis areas, as well as the UN and NATO. My only chance to speak to one of their members will be during my internships. It is a very closed community it seems. Despite the fact that I made it through the assessment succesfully, I am very sceptical, but more in the way of conditions and money than the overall operation. What should I consider or what should I look for? Its a very rare position in my country. I can't ask someone regarding this topic.

*edit: I wanted to add: it is almost futile to ask in forums in my country, to understand how rare these positions are. I am glad I registered here.
 
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OK, if you are outside the US, then I can't really give advice on what to look for, because standards and licensing and accreditation and other norms that might indicate something about the company are probably all very different. If they've been around since the 70's and have a good reputation, then I imagine it's pretty legitimate.

In the US, there are many small, shady, fly-by-night FW operators, which is what prompted my warning.

Beyond that, all I can really say is congratulations and good luck. Just work hard to be the best you can be at what you know how to do. Ask questions, practice with your equipment, study your protocols and the "why" behind them, and don't be afraid to be wrong sometimes.
 
Any suggestions for the FP-C exam and what book you can recommend?
 
Kais said:
Any suggestions for the FP-C exam and what book you can recommend?
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Sorry, I took that exam way too long ago (back in 2002 I became CF-P #00000121) for my experience to be of any help. There are several books and courses that people use now.

It's been discussed quite a bit on here. @DesertMedic66 and a few others have taken it fairly recently, I think.

There is a thread in this sub-forum called "FP-C without a class".

https://emtlife.com/threads/fp-c-without-a-class.44523/
 
As REMI stated I took the FP-C several months ago as a ground 911 paramedic with no CCT experience. For study prep I used several books with the main book being: Flight Paramedic Certification - A Comprehensive Study Guide by Kyle Faudree. I also attended a 40 hour review class for the FP-C by a company called IA MED. I found both to be very helpful.

If you are wanting a more in depth book about CCT I would recommend Critical Care Transport by AAOS and Patient Transport Principal and Practice by ASTNA
 
I'm currently using the ASTNA's critical care core curriculum to study and am signed up for IA MED's class in a few months. So we shall see how it goes. Planning on taking the test in December or January.
 
PotatoMedic said:
I'm currently using the ASTNA's critical care core curriculum to study.
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I would add the Principles and Practices book if at all possible.
VFlutter said:
+1, besides the fact that my helicopter is on the cover :cool: I thought it was a good CC book.
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Are you referring to the first, or second edition?

Thanks to my constant badgering about us having the ASTNA set, but no real general "critical care" books, our manager/s ponied up and got the second edition. The first edition, which I bought moons ago, and left in our conference room/ library has ARCH on the cover, IIRC.

The bonus to having the second edition is that it goes with Distance CME's CCTR refresher so I use it when doing those classes on duty. I would imagine it goes along with the Creighton course as well, should anyone care. They were using the first edition a few years back.
 
VentMonkey said:
The first edition, which I bought moons ago, and left in our conference room/ library has ARCH on the cover, IIRC.
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First edition. ARCH BK117. We just went back to the old school Royal Blue flight suits.
51nfUT878%2BL._SX389_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg
 
VFlutter said:
First edition. ARCH BK117. We just went back to the old school Royal Blue flight suits.
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Were you guys rocking the standard AM navy blues with an ARCH patch? Also, I wish we could go back to our all royal blue flight suits:(.
 
VentMonkey said:
Were you guys rocking the standard AM navy blues with an ARCH patch? Also, I wish we could go back to our all royal blue flight suits:(.
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Yep. All of the local flight services wore the same navy blue so they decided to go back for better recognition.
 
Wow. Thanks alot for so many replies. I will have a look at the books recommended. Thanks for the input!
 
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