ASN -> CRNA? NP? MD?

MJB · Feb 16, 2004

Roland says: "you will probably "max out" at around 200K per year (potentially double that if you are willing to go into private practice in a group)."

---Is this true? A CRNA can make $400K a year if they go to private practice? If it is, can anyone attest to it?

babymeena · Feb 16, 2004

Thanks for all the invaluable info you guys so kindly gave. 10 yrs of schooling just makes me cringe. I guess the ideal situation to consider med school would be when you're young & without family. I, too, value the family life the most before anything else.

Businessman - So both MD & CRNA have the same amt of autonomy??? One of the most profound reason why I wanted to get out of nursing was because of the pathetic reality of taking "ORDERS" from MDs and anybody in between. I know not all MDs have this attitude but most that I came in contact with have the general assumption of nurses being second class, not good enough to make it through med school and settled. I would be much happier in a setting where I have more autonomy and less "worshipping" of doctors. I guess what I'm trying to say is that I want more respect from both patients and doctors alike. Nurses just work too hard to be treated the way we are being treated... =(

Ammie

cnmtocrna · Feb 16, 2004

Does your wife want to be a CRNA as much as you want her to be one?? Just wondering. All relationships are different, I know, but it does seem a little strange how much you think and write about the CRNA thing with her in mind for the hard part.

Business Man, don't you think that the scope of practice would be greater for an MDA? Don't certain patient types such as those in the ICU who need CT surgery and other "difficult cases" usually goe to an MDA by default? Also, I think that the spread in salary between an MDA and CRNA might be somewhat misleading. You shouldn't compare an MDA who works on average eighty hours a week to a CRNA who might only work say fifty-five. I think if we "normalized" the average workweek to an even eighty hours that the CRNA would probably be closer to $200K plus. Also, I think that the 400K figure probably reflects either the very high range of working for an institution (for an MDA) or the low range for working in private practice (although when you consider the cost of malpractice insurance these days perhaps it's really not so much in the low range).
Personally, I think if you are truly fascinated by physiology, and medicine that alone (cetaris paribus) justifies the MDA route. However, if you are older and maybe changing careers, have a family (or want one in the near future) that the CRNA route makes more sense. As a rule of thumb, if you are under twenty five and not already an RN or in nursing school you should PROBABLY lean more to the MDA path. Over twenty-five, already an RN or working on a BSN and you should probably think more CRNA. In my case I would be somewhat happy with just my WIFE being a CRNA, living on Oahu in a decent one bedroom apartment (with my 290K mile 94 Toyota Camry), with a useable surfboard, and a kicking telescope! After about ten years I could probably afford a forty five foot sail boat (with an outboard motor of course for backup) and head out for my around the world voyage! From there on out I would support myself providing low cost medical service (using my ACNP training, and Navy Corpman experience) to natives in Fiji, Polynesia, and elsewhere. Maybe find a nice semi abandoned island with a few wild boar still running around....

Businessman · Feb 16, 2004

Ammie,

As you can tell, there are a lot of points of view because not everything can be quantified easily. The only clear distinctions are in salary and school time.

As for autonomy, there are both MDA and CRNA-only practices, but even there, one is part of a team, which means, it's a pseudo-autonomy.

If you work in a hospital, both nurses and doctors have responsibilities.

Whichever route you go, you'll have enough freedom to switch employers if the work environment is inhumane.

Make no mistake about it: in healthcare there's no true autonomy. :rotfl:

There are times when patients need to be taken care right away ...

My advice: spend as much time as possible in an anesthesia dept. in a hospital.

Good luck

Businessman · Feb 16, 2004

In my case I would be somewhat happy with just my WIFE being a CRNA, living on Oahu in a decent one bedroom apartment (with my 290K mile 94 Toyota Camry), with a useable surfboard, and a kicking telescope! After about ten years I could probably afford a forty five foot sail boat (with an outboard motor of course for backup) and head out for my around the world voyage! From there on out I would support myself providing low cost medical service (using my ACNP training, and Navy Corpman experience) to natives in Fiji, Polynesia, and elsewhere. Maybe find a nice semi abandoned island with a few wild boar still running around....

Good luck Roland !

That's very close to my dream, except I'll settle for a 25-30 footer on the TX coast. :coollook:

Roland · Feb 17, 2004

cnemetocna, no probably not. She was content to let her one hundred and sixty IQ, along with her 1400 SAT's "rot away" in our mortage and appraisal business (although she didn't like the lack of health insurance, one hundred hour weeks, no vacations, and continual uncertainty due to extreme regulatory, and economic flux). No, I pretty much pushed her into going back to school to even become a nurse "kicking and screaming". The funny thing is that now she LOVES being a nurse more than anything she's ever done. She has twice the clinical ability that I will EVER have, and is even more motivated to become a CRNA than I am for her to become one (although she says that she will never step foot on a boat with me, I'll have to work on that one). She is like "robo" nurse student to the point that she would never waste time posting on a board. In addition, she has made it clear that if I somehow sabotage her efforts to become a CRNA with careless words, that she will first divorce and then see that I have a permanent vacation at the BOTTOM of the sea (I can hear her singing with Sponge Bob "down, down, down, to the bottom of the sea, there you'll find Roland and I'm as happy as can be! down down down, we'll have lots of fun, now that his idle prattle is gone, gone, gone.")

meandragonbrett · Feb 18, 2004

Roland says: "you will probably "max out" at around 200K per year (potentially double that if you are willing to go into private practice in a group)."
---Is this true? A CRNA can make $400K a year if they go to private practice? If it is, can anyone attest to it?

Roland · Feb 18, 2004

I should have clarified that I didn't mean going to "work" for a CRNA group as an employee. Rather, to reach the higher ranges of income you would probably have to become a group "owner" (not necessarily THE owner). Alternatively, a CRNA might be able to earn more "selling" his services to the highest bidder on his/her own. Of course the possibility of higher income carries with it increased risk, and responsibility.

silverice · Mar 4, 2011

Business Man, don't you think that the scope of practice would be greater for an MDA? Don't certain patient types such as those in the ICU who need CT surgery and other "difficult cases" usually goe to an MDA by default? Also, I think that the spread in salary between an MDA and CRNA might be somewhat misleading. You shouldn't compare an MDA who works on average eighty hours a week to a CRNA who might only work say fifty-five. I think if we "normalized" the average workweek to an even eighty hours that the CRNA would probably be closer to $200K plus. Also, I think that the 400K figure probably reflects either the very high range of working for an institution (for an MDA) or the low range for working in private practice (although when you consider the cost of malpractice insurance these days perhaps it's really not so much in the low range).
Personally, I think if you are truly fascinated by physiology, and medicine that alone (cetaris paribus) justifies the MDA route. However, if you are older and maybe changing careers, have a family (or want one in the near future) that the CRNA route makes more sense. As a rule of thumb, if you are under twenty five and not already an RN or in nursing school you should PROBABLY lean more to the MDA path. Over twenty-five, already an RN or working on a BSN and you should probably think more CRNA. In my case I would be somewhat happy with just my WIFE being a CRNA, living on Oahu in a decent one bedroom apartment (with my 290K mile 94 Toyota Camry), with a useable surfboard, and a kicking telescope! After about ten years I could probably afford a forty five foot sail boat (with an outboard motor of course for backup) and head out for my around the world voyage! From there on out I would support myself providing low cost medical service (using my ACNP training, and Navy Corpman experience) to natives in Fiji, Polynesia, and elsewhere. Maybe find a nice semi abandoned island with a few wild boar still running around....

you guys are having the life that i wanted with my boyfriend. I'm 21 and was going to medical school. But I thought CRNA is pretty good. The trade off is money and family. and I would pick family.