Med school for experienced CRNA?

Most of the info you have received is correct - there are no shortcuts through medical school or any kind of residency, anesthesia or otherwise, simply because your wife is a CRNA.

I would advise thinking long and hard about ANY foreign medical school, in particular the Caribbean or Mexican schools. They have a much lower chance of matching for a residency, AND they have to pass the USMLE before they can even apply for residencies.

Just guessing from your posts that your wife is not a 20-something. Also look closely at all the financial implications of making such a move this many years into a career. I looked at going back to med school in the mid 80's, and would still have not broken even financially by 2009, 25 years later.

I can understand how your wife feels, but if she were a doctor, would she act like those MDAs and be such a pill? Probably not. So their comments are pushing her buttons, not indicating anything in reality. When my MD friends try to disparage my decision to go into nursing, not medicine, and nurse-anesthesia, not anesthesiology, I remind them that nursing is different from the practice of medicine, and often preferable.

it's not really that ironic

MDAs are looked down on by most "real" physicians as one-trick ponies. **** rolls downhill, so unless your wife is shooting for trauma, cardiac, neuro, or some other type of high-risk/high-reward surgeon specialty, she's still going to catch crap if she's in an OR as an MDA.

Those MDAs are probably just ****** that they spent as much time and effort as they did and that your wife can do what they do just as well or better. I suggest that she just smile sweetly and tell them that she feels their pain.

Just as a CRNA is viewed as "one trick pony". CRNA salaries are obscenely high...much higher than most primary care physicians that work 50-100% more hours than the average CRNA. Eventually this will change and CRNAs are very low hanging fruit on the vine when it comes to health care reform. However, if I were her, I would tell her to swallow her pride and just be what she was trained to be, and give up the ridiculous pipe dream of becoming a MDA. It would require at least 9-11 years of her life (1-2 years to even get into medical school assuming she had the prerequisites and the grades....just because a person is a CRNA doesn't mean they have a BS degree or a MS degree....many do not and those would require significant remediation in order to meet the basic requirements of medical school) all in order to avoid getting her feelings hurt. Get real....get a life as a CRNA, which is a very very cushy lifestyle compared to all other nurses and most MDs.

Actually paindoc, if you are a CRNA, you do have a bachelors and masters degree...

Not necessarily....CRNAs have not always had to have BS degrees or MS degrees. These were gradually phased in and those CRNAs with a 2 year RN program then one year certificate in a nurse anesthesia program were granted the same "CRNA" designation as those with the current 4 year BSRN plus 24-33 month MS program. It is a glaring quality issue with CRNAs....ya don't know what you get until you look at their background training, and the skills of a 3 year trainee are certainly not equivalent to a 7 year trainee, yet the certifying board for CRNAs seems to be oblivious to this. There are many CRNAs that never earned MS degrees and some that never earned BS degrees still practicing. It is an embarrassment to the profession that they are all lumped into the same category "CRNA" when some have more than double the training of others.

mclover22----While it is true that NEW CRNA's will have BS and MS degrees that hasn't always been the case. Just as 20 years from now it will not be true that all CRNA's have Doctoral degrees. The profession is moving that direction and NEW CRNA's 20 years from now will be required to have go through a Doctoral program.

I think that Paindoc is pointing out that not all CRNA's graduated under the requirements of today, there are still some working that may not have Master's degrees and perhaps not have BS degree's.

To the OP: Let your wife know that it was nurses who first came up with the idea of anesthesia, and in the 1800s medical students would come to them to find out ways to safely anesthetize their patients.
"Nurses were the first professional group to provide anesthesia services in the United States. Established in the late 1800s, nurse anesthesia has since become recognized as the first clinical nursing specialty. The discipline of nurse anesthesia developed in response to requests of surgeons seeking a solution to the high morbidity and mortality attributed to anesthesia at that time. Surgeons saw nurses as a cadre of professionals who could give their undivided attention to patient care during surgical procedures. Serving as pioneers in anesthesia, nurse anesthetists became involved in the full range of specialty surgical procedures, as well as in the refinement of anesthesia techniques and equipment."
From the Michigan Association of Nurse Anesthetists website.

Let's see the same thing could be said about MDAs and pain specialists...that they are ridiculously overpaid and are going to suffer salary changes. Why should an MDA get paid 3-4x as much as a CRNA or an FP to sign off a chart, sit in their office drinking coffee, and "supervise" CRNAs and AAs? There is no proof that CRNAs are going to suffer any major salary change. It is still a market economy...our general population is aging and more people will need healthcare/anesthesia.

You need to get over this stuff that CRNAs don't have to have their BSN/MSN. The vast majority have both. A Master's degree in nurse anesthesia was 1st implemented in 1990 and required by 1998. Now the AANA is going to require a Doctorate by 2025 with three schools already offering the DNP/DNAP in nurse anesthesia. Physician posters on here complain when CRNAs don't have enough education and then complain on another thread that are now going to get their doctorate.....Get over it! As more CRNAs retire the few that still have their certificates/Bachelor's only in anesthesia will be a thing of the past. Anesthesiology residency requirements have changed over the years and so has educational requirements for nurse anesthetists. I personally don't know any CRNAs with their BSN/BS/certificates only in nurse anesthesia. I know they are out there, but just haven't personally met any.

I am not here to debate that FPs are underpaid. They probably are, but that debate has absolutely nothing to do with CRNA or MDA salaries. The OP was thinking that the grass might be greener on the other side if their SO was an MDA. Instead of belittling the OP why not just say that it is long and drawn out process to become an MDA with no shortcuts and/or guarantees that even if they get through medical school they might not get an anesthesia residency.