Nothing is quite right beneath the granite sky. Here, the remnants of a family home splashed onto the curb with utter indifference. There, a business, shuttered before the storm but now only barely standing anyway. Sirens flash. The wind licks up moodily, an eerie remnant perhaps, of the storm that passed through and just as quickly moved on to another place. The world looks as though it’s been put in a blender and spit out again.
This is the office of a crisis nurse, whose job has them going into the situations everyone else is fleeing from. Like Batman. Their job is to provide medical attention to communities impacted by disasters.
In this article, we look at what it takes to become a crisis nurse, and what the job entails.
Background
The first step to becoming a crisis nurse is to receive the proper nursing education. Most RN certification programs take four years to complete and are part of a standard undergraduate curriculum. You can also apply for accelerated programs, which take place over the course of 12-18 months.
Naturally, these programs are very fast-paced. Because of how demanding they are, it can be very difficult to take them on while working a job or raising a family.
Once the educational requirements are satisfied and the testing and background verification procedures are complete you are eligible to begin acquiring professional nursing experience.
Gaining Experience
The usual background requirement for becoming a crisis nurse is two years. While you can satisfy this requirement with any type of nursing experience, it’s a good idea to look for positions that will prepare you for providing emergency care.
This accomplishes several things. As a crisis nurse, you may find yourself working almost exclusively in emergencies. By logging lots of time in these scenarios, you can get a good idea if this career path is really right for you, while also developing valuable skills that can be applied directly to the new job.
Emergency experience will also help your resume stand out. The number of these positions available may be overshadowed by the number of applicants, so it’s good to accumulate a resume that stands out.
Be Adaptable
It’s not so much that there aren’t many crisis nursing jobs in circulation. More that the number of local positions can vary tremendously. It’s a good idea to go into the job hunting process with an open mind, and a willingness to relocate for the position.
A Traveling Job
Unless you happen to live someplace that naturally comes into contact with enough disasters to keep a healthcare professional busy three hundred or so days out of the year (Gothom City, perhaps) you’ll need to travel for this job.
The idea, of course, is to go into whatever community is being impacted by a disaster that is larger than the local healthcare system can handle on its own. For example, during hurricane seasons, crisis nurses may be hired in the aftermath of the storm to provide additional assistance to the community. When their time there is done, they move on to the next town.
Crisis nurses were also vital in responding to high-need areas during the height of the pandemic.
A Dangerous Job?
Crisis nurses are typically working in the relatively controlled environment of a hospital. The position is not intended to be dangerous. However, there is always an element of risk to the nursing profession. Any emergency room nurse will be all too happy to share with you stories of overly aggressive patients, or belligerent visitors.
Crisis nurses are not supposed to come into contact with danger, but the capacity for risk is certainly there. During the height of Covid-19, for example, nurses specifically responding to the pandemic experienced a much higher risk of infection than those who were working on non-covid floors.
An Emotionally Difficult Task
It is worth noting that working as a crisis nurse can be an emotionally challenging job. Most nurses at least run the risk of encountering difficult situations at work, but for crisis nurses, emotional challenges are baked right into the job description.
Crisis nurses should go into the job with the understanding that they will often be interacting with communities in their most desperate moments.
Self-Care
Crisis nurses need to know how to take care of themselves just as well as they take care of their patients. Stress, anxiety, and even depression are common burdens experienced by people working in the medical profession. The job is difficult. The things you experience are often emotionally challenging.
People who don’t prioritize their mental and emotional health experience a significant risk of burnout. Practice self-care and be willing to speak up and advocate for yourself at home and at work.
The Perks
There are benefits to being a crisis nurse that sweetens the pot for those considering this line of work. For one thing, the job tends to stay fresh. Rather than returning to the same floor of the same hospital day after day, you will be traveling to new places, always responding to the unique circumstances of the disaster that brought you there.
For many crisis nurses, this alone is an exciting way to break up the monotony of working life.
There is also the pay. According to ZipRecruiter, crisis nurses can expect to make up to $100,000, significantly higher than the average nursing salary.
Conclusion
Crisis nursing is a difficult profession, not for the faint of heart. The right candidate will be ready and willing to regularly encounter desperate medical situations while working in recently devastated communities.
They will need to be able to travel often and adapt to changing circumstances at the drop of a hat. Perhaps most important of all, they need to know how to take care of themselves.
The work is difficult. The situations are long, hard, and often emotionally devastating. For the right candidate, however, crisis nursing is a great way to make a living while applying their trade in a way that literally saves lives
.