Real Talk

Specialties CRNA

Published

My dreams for anesthesia began during nursing school. I've always been a nerdy, overachiever, type A sort of person.

Let us have some real talk though.

Do you generally enjoy being a CRNA? Do you enjoy it over being an ICU Nurse? What aspects of being a CRNA do you enjoy? Which do you dislike? Please be upfront! I ask myself if I'm making the right decision, and obviously your online comments won't be my determining factor. I however want to gather all forms of data. From personal shadowing experiences to experiences of CRNAs.

Lately I've been feeling burned out in the ICU, and I'm asking myself if CRNA will just be one big extension of that ICU suckiness. I think lately I've been getting a lot of mentally unstable, rude, and violent patients. I'm running low on my spirits and am asking myself... is CRNA gonna be this ten fold?

Please note, CRNA is and was never an escape route for me. It was a plan, but now that I'm feeling a little crusty and baked from ICU bedside nursing I'm wondering.

p.s I still get fulfillment from the sick puppies. It's exciting when I do get a sick patient. Vent, CRRT, multiple drips. It tires me but fulfills me a lot more than a withdrawing ETOH attempting to physically abuse me while pooping everywhere.

Specializes in CRNA.
Hey totally agree with you. When I have the sickest of the sick it makes it worth it. When I have an ungrateful DKA patient throwing a temper tantrum for the 25th time, I become jaded and want to leave. When they are mad at me, when their own personal medical mismanagement and noncompliance has landed the ICU. Same thing for people withdrawing or detoxing. I'm not saying that I'm not empathetic or compassionate, or try at least ... but I am human and it's my anecdotal experiences that these patients can be abusive ... to their families... their caregivers... so forth.

We have a high population of homeless and the poorer side of our community due to the location of my hospital. I can't stand when patients get aggressive or abusive but I try to stay as positive as possible and do what is best for the patient.

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Specializes in Critical Care.
We have a high population of homeless and the poorer side of our community due to the location of my hospital. I can't stand when patients get aggressive or abusive but I try to stay as positive as possible and do what is best for the patient.

I don't mean this at ALL in a mean way. Just sort of a inner nurse circle dark humor. Sometimes the homeless ones for me are easiest to care for because they sadly typically lack a family meaning the chances of having an overbearing, demanding, and rude family are slim to none!

I want to point out to all non-nursing people reading this that families are typically helpful but there are those bad apples, and they truly don't JUST affect the mood of the team (from MDs to RN) but also interfere with the care. I understand they care and want to do the right thing, but there's a difference between advocacy and rudeness.

But back to the topic at hand. Open to anesthesia providers giving us the inner scoop on anesthesia, is it worth it for you? What are the drawbacks?

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Here's a question to help keep this topic going. For those CRNA's that have traveled and worked in different states. Have you had more positive experiences in come places over others? Is the culture more enjoyable on the east/west coasts? Any thought would be great to hear.

Thanks

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Specializes in Critical Care.

Here's some real talk:

All I find myself doing recently is either studying or working. Trying to keep an A in all my classes, because I want to strive for a 4.0 in my sciences. As a side note I'd like to say that self taught chemistry lecture is not easy. I'm doing lab in person and lecture online and having no one to teach me chemistry concepts is harder than I though so to be. Really hoping it'll all be worth it in the end. Keeping my eyes on the prize, my name on an acceptance letter.

Next semester I'm doing chemistry II, summer organic chemistry, and a two semester RN to BSN starting fall of 2018.

Before I know it spring 2019 will be here and it'll be time to apply!

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What resources are you using for your online chem classes? Are you supplementing them with Khan academy or other well-known sources?

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Specializes in Critical Care.
What resources are you using for your online chem classes? Are you supplementing them with Khan academy or other well-known sources?

Yes, I am largely relying on youtube (including Khan) and frankly you have to keep in mind that those LONG science lectures had I taken the traditional chemistry course, they translate into LONG study sessions in my case because I don't have those scheduled lectures.

As a full-time nurse, it is impractical to sit in on multiple lectures through out the week at a designated time, so this hybrid class really works for me in those terms.

I do feel a sense of satisfaction, I'm learning more about the world around us (mostly on my own and with my own resourcefulness) and it's truly awesome to learn about chemistry. I am a geek though so learning science and math has always intrigued me.

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Specializes in Critical Care.

CRNA's,

Do you feel like anesthesia satisfies your scientific curiosity? I will be honest and say that although nursing school was challenging in its own way, and it is a scientific study. I found nursing school to lack that explanation behind the WHY. Behind the why things are the way they are. I don't see it as flawed. The truth s you don't need to know about how or why chemicals interact in the body to be an effective bedside nurse. You need to know the general concepts behind F&E for example and signs of certain imbalances etc. However, you don't need to learn about the intricate interactions between a cell, it's wall, the electrochemical aspects of it, and the electrolytes in and outside the cell.

But that's exactly what I enjoy learning. Something about learning how the world inside us works, that's super exciting to me.

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Yes, I am largely relying on youtube (including Khan) and frankly you have to keep in mind that those LONG science lectures had I taken the traditional chemistry course, they translate into LONG study sessions in my case because I don't have those scheduled lectures.

As a full-time nurse, it is impractical to sit in on multiple lectures through out the week at a designated time, so this hybrid class really works for me in those terms.

I do feel a sense of satisfaction, I'm learning more about the world around us (mostly on my own and with my own resourcefulness) and it's truly awesome to learn about chemistry. I am a geek though so learning science and math has always intrigued me.

Awesome! To maximize time, have you thought about getting a professional tutor? I have done so in the past and it saved a ton of time and I get immediate answers to the silliest of questions. You will only need 1-2 hours a week at most.

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Specializes in Critical Care.
Awesome! To maximize time, have you thought about getting a professional tutor? I have done so in the past and it saved a ton of time and I get immediate answers to the silliest of questions. You will only need 1-2 hours a week at most.

Never thought about this! Wow, what a good investment. I kept beating my head into the wall the first few weeks over the silliest questions that could have been resolves within minutes with a tutor, so true! Is there a website you recommend for tutors?

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I got free tutoring at my uni's tutoring clinic and then I ended up paying the best person there extra for spending 1v1 time with me at an agreed time/place. All of the tutors were university students themselves, so their prices weren't outrageous.

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My career as a CRNA has been much better than the ICU. When I see the ASA argue that AAs are better because an AA student doesn't take an ICU RN out of the unit, I laugh. I was leaving the ICU after 4 years, if not to become a CRNA then something else. I probably stayed longer because of nurse anesthesia. There are politics, which is the downside. Younger MDs can be threatened by a strong CRNA. Right now the push for AAs for political reasons is depressing, but giving anesthesia is great.

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CRNA's,

Do you feel like anesthesia satisfies your scientific curiosity? I will be honest and say that although nursing school was challenging in its own way, and it is a scientific study. I found nursing school to lack that explanation behind the WHY. Behind the why things are the way they are. I don't see it as flawed. The truth s you don't need to know about how or why chemicals interact in the body to be an effective bedside nurse. You need to know the general concepts behind F&E for example and signs of certain imbalances etc. However, you don't need to learn about the intricate interactions between a cell, it's wall, the electrochemical aspects of it, and the electrolytes in and outside the cell.

But that's exactly what I enjoy learning. Something about learning how the world inside us works, that's super exciting to me.

As unpopular as it is to say, a big part about training for advanced practice in general and anesthesia in particular is to begin to stop thinking like nurses are trained to think. A complete departure is absolutely required for success. That is so because the move is from waiting for instructions to writing the instructions yourself. Thinking creatively about solving problems that the patient presents is not possible in the Nursing Model.

The vast experience in CC that RNs bring to anesthesia is unique and irreplaceable. That is the basis on which everything else is placed. But a complete paradigm change is required for success.

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