How much do you make?

Specialties CRNA

Published

Now, before I get blown up with comments saying "it's not about money, but patient care". I get that. No need to tell me over and over. I heard CRNAs mainly get hired in rural areas, which kind of scares me. I would simply like to know the average starting salary of your line of work, plus the area you live in, and/or the amount of experience you have as a CRNA. Thank you!

wtbcrna: I believe you for sure...I think i am just burned out and feel like i never really got any respect as a nurse, i know...cry me a river! I think the stress of being an icu nurse for has been more so in being the mediator for doctors, OT, PT, speech, nutrition, x-ray, MRI, cat-scan...you all know what i am talking about right? Just want to get dial in on the patient instead of getting head over heals in charting and paper work. Just gets overwhelming at times which i am sure being a crna does most of time. I am ready for more autonomy and responsibility. I like the idea of being able to call the shots and get out what i put in to the profession.

Is being in a rural setting more difficult than a hospital setting due to little to no back up? I live in colorado and most inner city jobs are hard to find but lots of rural ones opening up...but not sure if that is a good idea for a new grad? thoughts please?

Specializes in Case Mgmt, Anesthesia, ICU, ER, Dialysis.

My guess is the 90K in Florida is around the Gainesville area. Shands starts in the 90's. One of my friends got a job there straight out of school. She says the money stinks, but the experience is fabulous.

Specializes in ICU, transport, CRNA.
^^ very well said... The stress of being an icu nurse is nothing compared to being a crna.

Respectfully disagree. For me providing anesthesia is far, far less stressful than being an SICU RN. For one thing the vast majority of my patients now are pretty healthy, when I worked in the SICU I pretty much only took care of the worst train wrecks. Also the colabrative relationship I have now with the surgeons is far less stressful than when I was an ICU RN and the sugeons thought I was their Bitc#.

I also find independant practice in a rural area less stressful then working under the ACT model. Used to drive me crazy to know some MDA was going to get half my bill rate when many times they didn't do any more than stick their head in the door and ask how it was going, if that. Of course they were always there to sign the charting so they could get paid.

Not having to convince an ignorant intern or resident (with a huge ego) to do the right thing for my patient is priceless. Now what my patient needs they get.

Specializes in ICU, transport, CRNA.
My guess is the 90K in Florida is around the Gainesville area. Shands starts in the 90's. One of my friends got a job there straight out of school. She says the money stinks, but the experience is fabulous.

$90K? I Made considerably more as an ICU RN. I am amazed CRNAs are willing to work for $90K. I was offered $90K to cover another CRNA's baby leave for 3 months work.

Specializes in Anesthesia.
wtbcrna: I believe you for sure...I think i am just burned out and feel like i never really got any respect as a nurse, i know...cry me a river! I think the stress of being an icu nurse for has been more so in being the mediator for doctors, OT, PT, speech, nutrition, x-ray, MRI, cat-scan...you all know what i am talking about right? Just want to get dial in on the patient instead of getting head over heals in charting and paper work. Just gets overwhelming at times which i am sure being a crna does most of time. I am ready for more autonomy and responsibility. I like the idea of being able to call the shots and get out what i put in to the profession.

Is being in a rural setting more difficult than a hospital setting due to little to no back up? I live in colorado and most inner city jobs are hard to find but lots of rural ones opening up...but not sure if that is a good idea for a new grad? thoughts please?

I got to the point working in ICU where I felt the same as you. I didn't like the job in ICU anymore. It was no longer challenging, and I dreaded going to work. Being a CRNA is just different than being any other kind of nurse that you really cannot compare the two.

I am a USAF CRNA, so my experience as a CRNA is going to be different than most civilian CRNAs. I work independently, and I make pretty much what I would have made (actually less) than I would have had I stayed as an USAF ICU nurse.

IndiCRNA: thank you for your feedback, very informative! As a new grad did you start out working the ACT model or is there opportunity to work as an independent contractor? I am extremely interested and motivated to work 100% for myself and want to learn the ins and outs of billing and various practice models. Really important to me to be the master of my own income and autonomy but that comes with a level of experience i am guessing. did you feel you were well prepare out of school to work as a contractor or in a rural setting?

Do you recommend starting out in a large hospital and getting experience, maybe an all crna group, or contract work? My program is front loaded the first year and then the final portion of my program is 16 months of straight clinicals 5-6 days a week so that should be some good prep time before job hunting.

I followed a crna in the ACT model today at children's hospital and you are totally right...MD poke her head in once or twice out of four cases to say whats up and was gone after that. Didn't seem like the approach I would be interested in. Also, the crna told me the one thing they don't prep you for is the politics of anesthesia and how to juggle that mess. lots to learn i guess!

thanks for any feedback!

Denver

I got to the point working in ICU where I felt the same as you. I didn't like the job in ICU anymore. It was no longer challenging, and I dreaded going to work. Being a CRNA is just different than being any other kind of nurse that you really cannot compare the two.

I am a USAF CRNA, so my experience as a CRNA is going to be different than most civilian CRNAs. I work independently, and I make pretty much what I would have made (actually less) than I would have had I stayed as an USAF ICU nurse.

Is the pay less cause you got loans taken care of and officer pay during your schooling or cause it's a government gig? I worked at the VA in sicu and micu and can firmly say i will never take a government gig again...took six months to get my paper work done, not to mention how many times they lost my log in codes or something just always seemed to be wrong. No one seemed to care about doing their job and everyone kept trying to pass their workload onto someone else. granted, this is just one VA i worked at so that is entirely my experience and opinion and i know this is not the same across the board.

I looked at the fort sam program cause i heard it was best in the nation but i was not in love with the pay they offered crnas in my VA and the commitment afterwards. Do you like working for the military still? Would love to hear your perspective. thank you for your thoughts.

Specializes in Anesthesia.
Is the pay less cause you got loans taken care of and officer pay during your schooling or cause it's a government gig? I worked at the VA in sicu and micu and can firmly say i will never take a government gig again...took six months to get my paper work done, not to mention how many times they lost my log in codes or something just always seemed to be wrong. No one seemed to care about doing their job and everyone kept trying to pass their workload onto someone else. granted, this is just one VA i worked at so that is entirely my experience and opinion and i know this is not the same across the board.

I looked at the fort sam program cause i heard it was best in the nation but i was not in love with the pay they offered crnas in my VA and the commitment afterwards. Do you like working for the military still? Would love to hear your perspective. thank you for your thoughts.

My pay is due to the bonus structure for nurses in the USAF, specifically while I am doing my payback years for going to NA school my bonus is less than what I would have got staying in the ICU.

Somedays being a CRNA in the USAF is great and other days it sucks. There is a lot of bureaucracy to deal with in the military (not as bad as the VA). Being a CRNA in the military is a 24/7 job with deployments, and lots of time away from your family. It is great way to live in different parts of the country and overseas. The military CRNA training is the best training you can get if you want to be an autonomous CRNA.

Specializes in ICU, transport, CRNA.
IndiCRNA: thank you for your feedback, very informative! As a new grad did you start out working the ACT model or is there opportunity to work as an independent contractor? I am extremely interested and motivated to work 100% for myself and want to learn the ins and outs of billing and various practice models. Really important to me to be the master of my own income and autonomy but that comes with a level of experience i am guessing. did you feel you were well prepare out of school to work as a contractor or in a rural setting?

Do you recommend starting out in a large hospital and getting experience, maybe an all crna group, or contract work? My program is front loaded the first year and then the final portion of my program is 16 months of straight clinicals 5-6 days a week so that should be some good prep time before job hunting.

I followed a crna in the ACT model today at children's hospital and you are totally right...MD poke her head in once or twice out of four cases to say whats up and was gone after that. Didn't seem like the approach I would be interested in. Also, the crna told me the one thing they don't prep you for is the politics of anesthesia and how to juggle that mess. lots to learn i guess!

thanks for any feedback!

Denver

I didn't need to start out in a large hospital. My observation in NA school what that the CRNAs working in the big hospitals actualy got to do LESS since there was alwasy lots of MDAs around. I get to do it all with the exception of open hearts and the more complicated neuro cases (currently the hospital is talking about starting an open heart program). Plenty of nerve blocks and regional as well as general. Also get some shockingly bad trauma cases since we are far from other hospitals (we are level III trauma center). I don't recomend stating out in a large hospital, but it would be better to start out someplace where you had some more experienced back up if you feel you need it. I didn't feel I needed it. I was very well prepared by my school and my ICU experience. The whole last 3 months of school clinical I was more or less functioning alone with back up if I needed it, I didn't. I have only worked ACT model as a locums. Not interested in doing it full time. I haven't worked as a contractor. I very much like being 1/3 owner of the practice. I don't really have to answer to anyone. I only see my partners at our monthly business meeting and occasionaly in report. Both of my partners are great people and wonderful to work with. We don't have politics. We hire the scut work like taxes, payroll (we have one employee), insurance and that kind of stuff out to a business managment company (actually one nice lady who works out of her kitchen). Most of the physicians I work with are great and they NEVER bother me about my practice, except one vascular guy who some times yells "he is tightening up, he is tightening up!" in the OR. I don't know what he is talking about but on the advice of my partner I just open a drawer, rattle a few bottles around, make a show of doing something while I do nothing and ask "how is he now?" after a few min. That always satisfies him. (eye roll)

My program was front loaded didatic too, however there is plenty of book work and papers and presentations during that 16 months of clinical. It just doesn't seem as bad after the whole year of really tough didatic. You will find, as I found, that NA school is full of unrelated fluff. Take my advice, treat your OR, PACU & ICU nurses like gold. teach them, support them, and always be very nice to them. They go out of their way to make my life easier and I know fully well that if they wanted to make my life miserable they can.

If you are not interested in answering a person's question it is rude to comment.

[TABLE=width: 475]

[TR]

[TD=class: word]Thread Hijacking[/TD]

[TD=class: tools][/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD][/TD]

[TD=class: text, colspan: 2]When a person starts a posting on a message board, or forum that others are able to comment on, that original posting and the comments on it are called a thread. A thread hijacking occurs when one or more individuals commenting on the original posting, go off topic, creating a separate conversation. This is rude, and bad internet etiquette. If people want to discuss a different topic, they should start their own thread.[/TD]

[/TR]

[/TABLE]

Specializes in critcal care, CRNA.

It's not hijacking. The conversation just evolved. Are you the OP? If not, then why are you angry? No one else complained.

Morificeko: Thank you, my thoughts exactly!

+ Add a Comment