EMS Certifications: From EMT to Flight Paramedic

1. Emergency Medical Responder (EMR): the first-response level.
2. Emergency Medical Technician (EMT): basic life support.
3. Advanced EMT (AEMT): the level between EMT and paramedic.
4. Paramedic: advanced life support, and the license the paramedic specialty credentials below require.
5. Specialty credentials: board certifications for transport work, earned after the paramedic license. Flight nurses follow a separate track that starts from the RN license.

The first four are the levels at which the National Registry of EMTs (NREMT) certifies. A Registry certification alone grants no right to practice; that comes from a state license, the state's grant of legal authority. Some states use the Registry result as the basis for that license, and some of those call the state authorization a certification, as the Registry's own certification and licensure note explains. Read your state EMS office's wording before you assume which one you hold.

Three credentials come up whenever transport work is discussed, and they split by license and by vehicle.

• FP-C, the flight paramedic credential: for licensed paramedics on aircraft. Credential House covers it in full, with practice questions and a study guide.
• CCP-C: the same board's credential for ground critical care paramedics.
• CFRN: a separate credential from BCEN, for flight nurses.
• The deciding question is which license you hold. A paramedic picks between the two board credentials by vehicle and by what the employer asks for. CAMTS-accredited services require FP-C or CCP-C for paramedics who do critical care transports and have been employed for more than 2 years. An RN on a flight crew looks to the nurse credential instead.

Flight paramedic vs flight nurse is a question of the license underneath, not of rank: both may treat the same patient on the same aircraft, each within the scope of their own license. We do not yet carry fact cards for the CCP-C or the CFRN, so their question counts, fees and rules are not shown here.

Paramedic training builds on EMT training, so the EMT level comes first. Then complete a paramedic program with its classroom, lab and clinical parts, pass the paramedic exam your state uses (in states that rely on the Registry, that is the NREMT exam), and apply to your state for the license. Only after that step does the flight paramedic exam open to you: a current, unrestricted paramedic license or certificate from a state or country is its sole entry rule.