Crna

smiling_ru · Sep 29, 2003

That would depend on you. If you like patient care/medicine then it would be worth it. If you do not like the environment, and do it for the money there is no way it is worth it.

Go to a hospital and shadow a nurse, see if it is something you would like, recognizing that between school and a year or two of practice you will be doing it for several years.

If you are still interested after that, evaluate what the CRNA position entails and make your decision.

yoga crna · Sep 30, 2003

True Story--Many years ago, at a wedding I met a young businessman (MBA) who was so impressed with my enthusiasm for my profession that he decided that day to become a CRNA. It took him many years, and he accomplished his goal. I never worked with him, but kept up with his career until he met an untimely death in an auto accident.

His previous degrees helped him and our profession as he became involved in state and national organizations.

I felt so good to have influenced someone in such a positive manner. It can be done, just have your motivations clear, be prepared for a lot of hard work from your first day in school for the remaining of your career.

YogaCRNA

zrmorgan · Sep 30, 2003

You have to figure that getting to CRNA school has many hoops to jump through.

First the nursing school- you must be patient with the various assignments / instructors / rotations which are mandatory to earn your R.N. degree. Yes, this means you may be coaching new moms how to breastfeed, irrigating geriatric patients ears to flush out earwax, and providing thourough peri-care for combative alzheimers patients (most of these patients will tell you that they appreciate you).

Next comes the ICU, which fortunately, due to the shortage, we can enter straight out of RN school. (You used to have at least a year on the wards to get into the ICU). Here it is a little more exciting, dealing with vent patients / sepsis/ trauma etc. However, you will have to be very patient with people who are not happy. I have learned on the unit, that my favorite types of patients, are very much like anesthetized patients...tubed, sedated, and worthy of vigilant care. Most schools require you to stick this out for a year. It is very rewarding, however, I'll be honest...I am counting the days down until I am sitting in the classroom again, and not being stressed about the guy crapping blood all over himself in room 10, while the agitated alcoholic in room 1 is trying to pull out his life preserving endotracheal tube.

(96 days left :).

Looking back, I am glad I stuck it out through all of this. My plan though, was if I did not get into CRNA school, I would be a cath lab nurse and push sedation. There, the pay was decent, and I only had one patient to focus on. Getting your RN will allow you to have a ton of opportunities. With your business background too, you would be highly sought after in Biomedical.

MICU RN · Oct 1, 2003

Shadow some ICU nurses and CRNAs; as the last post mentioned there will be plenty of hoops to jump through. I have been working towards this goal for almost ten years and am in a Crna program. Although right now, I am taking 16 hours of graduate courses, which I need to get my MSN. I start the anesthesia classes in the spring. I don't know if I would choose this path again, mainly because it took much longer to get to this point. Mistake number one was going into a ADN program first, it took me almost 3 1/2 years to complte my RN/BSN education. I did not really enjoy most of the bedside nursing. Having said that however, I loved being exposed to the medical stuff, I worked in a big academic hospital and was exposed to some great teaching. However, all the bedside nursing BS really was a drag. In general you workyour butt off and perform plenty of scutt work. You are given a lot of responsibility but little autonomy or finacial compensation, especially when you see the money some the doctors are making. Nursing anesthesia offers you an opportunity to make a good living and have plenty autonomy, but you pay your dues to get there. So if you decide you want to go for it, good luck, it is quite a journey.

De Pa · Oct 1, 2003

Thanks everybody for the good responses. The University of Michigan has a second career nursing program where, if you already have a bachelors degree in another field and take the prerequisite courses you can finish the BSN in 12 months and take your RN exams. I plan to start taking those prerequisites this spring so I can finish by Winter 2005, and get into the BSN program in Fall 2005. Then hopefully I can go straight to ICU after that. Good idea? Thanks again guys. I look forward to your responses.

De Pa

Laughing Gas · Oct 1, 2003

It's great you are considering a career in nursing, especially CRNA. But I think people here are forgetting something major... This person wants to make a huge change based on salary. This isn't like going from CPA to a lawyer. I have been an RN for 7 years and am busting orifice to learn the minute details that usually only MD's are concerned with as pertains to meds, pathophys, etc. I think that the notion that someone with no background will swoop in and become a CRNA may be optimistic in MOST cases. I am sure it is possible, especially considering everyone is different.

While salary is a motivator to ruin your life for 2 to 3 years, it should not be the sole reason. If you told a director you chose CRNA for the salary at your interview, you'd probably be in trouble.

If you are simply looking for bang for your buck, nursing is not it. Become a computer programmer. I would suggest researching this major and risky change beforehand.

Good luck in any case:)