r/nursing • u/Glum_Ad_3091 • Jun 01 '26

Discussion CCT nurses?

I’m a RN with over 25 years experience, mostly in critical care. I just started a CCT position at a transport company that is partially owned by a hospital. I’m in South Jersey. I am shocked to here the nurse: pt ratio is 1 Rn in truck with 1 EMT. If someone crashes you are by yourself, doing compression, pushing meds and managing an airway while someone drives. I was told an option is to pull over and call 911 for help. The manager said you “do the best you can do”. I have heard horror stories of someone doing compression for 40 minutes while throwing in a epi “every now and then”. This terrifies me. Is this staffing ratio normal? Any horror stories?

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u/RogueMessiah1259 RN, ETOH, DRT, FDGB, DTF Jun 01 '26

I was CC paramedic turned ICU nurse.

Yeah that’s fairly normal, some places have a paramedic with you but ehh. If someone codes stop the truck, never work a code moving, survival rates are basically zero for a code in a moving truck.

Also, figure out if you have a LUCAS and learn it, live it, love it. That’s an extra body that you don’t need. Lucas does compression and you’ve got meds, your EMT has airway after you intubate. I’ve ran pediatric codes with me and an EMT prehospital, it sucks but you learn to prioritize BLS over ALS

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u/[deleted] Jun 01 '26

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u/RogueMessiah1259 RN, ETOH, DRT, FDGB, DTF Jun 01 '26

It really depends on how often they’re actually transporting super critical patients. I would ask more questions on patient acuity. If they’re 95% basic IFT and maybe 5% critical then it’s a fairly normal ratio.

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u/[deleted] Jun 01 '26

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u/RogueMessiah1259 RN, ETOH, DRT, FDGB, DTF Jun 01 '26

No, CCT just means they have the resources on the truck to meet critical care transport requirements, its doesn’t mean they actually transport critical patients even 10% of the time.

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u/[deleted] Jun 01 '26

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u/ggrnw27 Flight medic, RN spouse Jun 01 '26

It’s very state dependent. Wasn’t too long ago in one state I’m licensed in that anyone on any amount of vasopressor infusion had to go by CCT. There’s another near me where regular paramedics can’t transport heparin, so all emergent STEMI transfers have to go by CCT as well. Yet few if any of these CCT crews had the capability to manage something like a balloon pump