Travel Assistance 101: What is a Rescue Nurse?

Here at On Call, we have a team of caring and compassionate Rescue Nurses who are ready to help our travelers get home safely from anywhere, at any time.  Typically if a traveler is medically stable, alert, and conscious, a commercial evacuation with a Rescue Nurse is the best transport option. From bedside to bedside, our Rescue Nurse Team coordinates, oversees, and monitors every logistical and medical detail of a traveler’s transport.

Read on to learn more about how our Rescue Nurses work diligently behind the scenes, every day, to ensure our travelers feel safe and supported throughout their journeys.

Picture This: You’re at a high-stress meeting overseas and you start to experience chest pain. You arrive at a local hospital and are informed that you need immediate cardiac intervention (good thing you had On Call to refer you to an appropriate local facility with cardiac catheterization capabilities!). After you’ve recuperated enough to begin rehab, you need to return home to continue your recovery. At this point, you’re healthy enough to fly on a commercial flight, but you know you’ll need some extra assistance—and that’s where our Rescue Nurses come in.

In this specific circumstance, once you’re fit to travel, our Medical Team and Assistance Coordinators will work with your treating doctors, facility staff, and family members to determine the level of care, medications, and equipment required for a safe and comfortable journey home. Once we have this information, our dedicated, in-house rescue nurse transportation coordinators will match you with a nurse based on your specific needs and location. Then, once we have all the facts and authorizations to act on your behalf, we will secure the necessary visas, flights, lodging, and ground transportation. We will also obtain any necessary clearances/authorizations from your treating hospital or airlines and arrange admissions at a receiving hospital or medical facility if applicable.

Your designated Rescue Nurse will then travel to wherever you are—whether it’s to your hospital bed or even your hotel room—to get acquainted and perform one last physical assessment. Once it is time to leave, the Rescue Nurse will remain by your side to assist you with your journey home. This means the nurse will meet you at your bedside in the hospital or your hotel door and assist you to a comfortable vehicle waiting for you. Upon arrival at the airport, the nurse will not only care for your needs but also assist you with navigating flight check-in and ticketing and swiftly getting through airport security.  Throughout the flight, whether you need medications administered, help with special equipment such as oxygen or even getting up to stretch your legs, our Rescue Nurses won’t leave your side until you’re home with your family or at the hospital of your choice. Throughout your trip home, we’ll even provide your loved ones, receiving facility, and other authorized contacts with timely updates on your status and condition.

Our travelers tell us time and time again that the peace of mind they feel when they meet their On Call Rescue Nurse for the first time is unexplainable. With close to a 100% satisfaction rating, our caring, empathetic team of Rescue Nurses not only get to do what they love most, but truly love what they do. Want to learn more? Contact us today

For over 25 years, On Call International has provided fully-customized travel risk management and global assistance services protecting millions of travelers, their families, and their organizations. Visit us at www.oncallinternational.com to learn more. You can also stay in touch with On Call’s in-house risk management, travel health and security experts by signing up for our quarterly Travel Risk Management (TRM) newsletter.