Florida CRNA Schools

Specialties CRNA

Published

Hi,

I am new to this board and am interested in becoming a CRNA. I was wondering if anyone had any information on the programs in Florida, specifically Barry University or FIU. Thanks for any info you can give me.

Rex,

I have had an offer, but I am waiting until next year to really decide on what I do. The offers will come, especially from locum tenems (Agency) staffing organizations. Unless you need the money, I would not commit to any group as the salary is increasing every year. Current base wages are around 90,000 here in florida, and should be around 120,000 when you graduate. There is a big shortage of CRNAs so you do not have to worry. Up North, they are paying 160,000 per year I think in chicago. No need to rush employment as it will be there when you graduate.

SRNA

Like you, I'm not worried finding a great job in a city where I would like to live. I've found that going to gaswork.com is very encouraging.

Are you sharing an apt in Orlando? Your posts read as if you are at ORMC.

Rex

Rex,

I have a house in Orlando. I shared an apartment down in Miami with three classmates for four months while I was down there. Right by the railroad tracks, never got any sleep or good studying done. It is a wonder I made it. very difficult.

rex-

i also got accepted to barry starting in jan '03. congrats! i currently live in orlando and will most likely be returning to do my clinicals here. the thing i'm working on right now is finding a place for the~4-5 mo i'll be down in miami**cheap** if you or srna have any recomm. let me know. thanks

-ctb

CTB

You probably also received the listing of housing resources from Barry. I've been researching Barry's clinical locations to help me decide what type of housing and where I should be looking. If Broward offers 1600+ clinical procedures inc regional and insertion of central lines, then I probably will try to find a place in Ft Lauderdale for the 28 months. However, SRNA makes a compelling reason to look at ORMC for clinical exposure. And, there is no guarentee that we will get the clinical assignment we request.

The Holly House, 0.4 miles from Barry offers studios around $600/month with a 7 month lease. The Venetian and the Archstone (highrise) offer 6 month leases for about the same price but are 3 miles from Barry.

Rex

hey guys,

Just be sure that you check the area out that is right next to the school as it is pretty shady. I don't think that the holly house is the best, and to the best of my knowledge you cannot get into look at the apartments on the weekend. $600.00 sounds really cheap for a two bedroom apartment. Are you sure about this? I stayed at Biscayne Place apartments, what a rathole! They were also very expensive. If you guys have money, I recommend staying closer to the aventura area, or close to lauderdale and the beach, or else Pembroke Pines. Pembroke Pines is nice, but a little more expensive and about 20 minutes from the school, but well worth it. If you can afford it, go with lauderdale, or Pembroke Pines, and stay away from Miami Shores or North Miami.

It is also hard to find a short term lease. We had to pay two extra months rent to live at Biscayne Place for only 4 months.

Hope this helps you.

I went to Barry and got my BSN there. The CRNA school was having a rocky time with clinicals only avail far away like Orlando and somewhere else a similar distance. I did enjoy my time there tho. I chose to go out of state to NA school because there were too many negative things going on there. I do have friends that did well there, they said there were some additional challenges but all got thru OK.

how important is it to be close to campus? i have a place i can stay for ~$250-$300 w/ a friend not having to worry about breaking lease. but he lives in tamarac which i think is about 35-45min away. is it more important to be close to campus to have convenient access to the lab, library, etc... what is the farthest you would recommend living from campus, in time not distance?

-thanks

-ctb

Hey guys. I see that some of you have been accepted to Barry University School of Anesthesia. I will be applying there myself in Spring 2004. Can you guys tell me what kinds of questions they asked you during your interview. Also, how would I best prepare myself for the interview, and finally, should I contact the director before hand, introduce myself and ask him or here what I could do to make myself more attractive to them. I've been planning on this since I began college. I've had the application since I started nursing school. Could you guys give a future fellow nurse anesthetist some greatly appreciated advice. Thanks!

Celeste

celeste,

the question for the barry interview were pretty straightforward.

such as, why do you want to be a crna?, what have you done to prepare yourself for the intensity of school? they asked some ethical questions like, what whould you do if you suspected one of you classmates of cheating on an exam or stealing narcotics?

what do you do for fun?, what is the role of a crna? have you shadowed any crnas?, what kind of cases did you see? what professional orginization do you belong to? where do you see yourself in the future?

overall i had a good interview. it was in front of the director of the program, another professor, a student, and a mda. not too many clinical question during the interview but they did have a quiz testing your overall clinical knowledge. so i suggest just reviewing common icu drugs (indication, action, adv effects), ecg interpretation, a & p.

personally i did not contact the director prior to applying or interview. i don't know if that is common practice or not, but i guess it wouldn't hurt if you felt you lacked in certain areas.

just be yourself, confident, have intelligent question ready to ask them when they are done interviewing you. sell yourself. if you don't feel confident about interviewing there are excellent books at any local bookstore with sample questions and tips.

hope this helps

ctb

The library is crappy, and I would choose to live 30 minutes away if I had to do it again. It is terrible close to the campus. You will rarely use the lab. There are not many benefits to living close to the campus.

Check out other schools such as FIU while your at it. I went to nursing school there, also have friends that went thru NA school. There are problems with the NA school you might want to know about. My friends at FIU on the other hand seem much happier. Nursing school was fine BTW and things may have changed. Ask about class size, facility size, and how far away are their clinicals. (were 5 hours away!!).

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